SocGen Rogue Trader Guilty; Must Repay $6.7B

A trader who brought Societe Generale to the brink of collapse in 2008 has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay the $6.7 billion his unauthorized trades cost the French bank. Jerome Kerviel, 33, was found guilty of breach of trust and computer hacking and sentenced to 5 years in jail, with two suspended, Bloomberg reports.

"By his deliberate actions, he put in peril the existence of the bank that employed 140,000 people, of which he was a part, and whose future was threatened," said the judge at the Paris court where Kerviel was tried. Kerviel had argued that while his trades "probably" exceeded his boundaries, his bosses knew what he was doing and turned a blind eye. For more on the SocGen meltdown, click here.
(More Jerome Kerviel stories.)