The best story in Paris, and, incredibly, it isn't about Carla Bruni

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080130.WBwreguly20080130072636/WBStory/WBwreguly

Link: globeandmail.com: Reguly in Europe - The best story in Paris.

"The Societe Generale "rogue trader" affair is only a week old and we can already guess the outcome: Book and film contracts that could make the alleged rogue, Jerome Kerviel, a bundle of money and assure him fame for years.

The story is getting better by the day and you can bet book publishers and film directors are getting all excited about a 31-year-old nobody who triggered the biggest French banking crisis in memory. What intrigue! What appeared at first as a simple case of a lone trader running amok and undetected in spite of sophisticated trading and risk controls is starting to look like a wider case of SocGen incompetence and greed, with a whiff of coverup. Anyone who knows anything about derviatives trading finds it hard to believe that positions worth as much as 50-billion euros in European stock index futures – the amount Kerviel is said to have piled up – would go entirely undetected by the young man's supervisers and the investment bank's trade-management systems. We now know that Eurex, the European futures and options exchange, sounded the alarm bell about some Kerviel trades in November and nothing was done about it.

By the end of last year, Kerviel claimed he has made profits of 1.4-billion euros before it all went horribly wrong. "I cannot believe that my superiors did not realize the money I was committing," he said in a statement to French police. "It was impossible to generate such profits with small positions."(...)

http://www.editorsweblog.org/news/2008/01/france_citizenside_sells_amateur_footage.php

An amateur video of former Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel, whose unauthorized activities caused the bank to lose €4.9bn, was sold to Paris Match, and is projected to bring in at least €100,000 in revenue. This is one of the first big deals for citizen imagery agency Citizenside.

The video depicts Kerviel as he signed his statement at the police station.

Paris Match bought the exclusivity of the video for the French press and was to publish excerpts today.

Citizenside was created in 2006 and is specialized in collecting footage and still pictures from amateurs, which it then sells to traditional media outlets.

“This video will generate at least €100,000 in revenues,” said Citizenside founder Matthieu Stefani. (...)