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Fraud investigators were yesterday questioning a second French trader, suspected of helping, or at least covering up, the activities of Jerome Kerviel, the alleged €4.9 billion ($9.1 billion) man.
The unexpected development influenced a decision by the Paris appeal court to reverse a previous ruling and to place Kerviel in custody for a second time.
The new arrest follows the discovery of an electronic message, sent last November, in which a fellow trader assured Kerviel that he had "done nothing illegal, as far as the law is concerned".
The man who sent the message, Moussa Bakir, 32, worked for a brokerage company called Fimat, which was a subsidiary at that time of Kerviel's employer, Societe Generale. It was sold last month to the subsidiary of another French bank
This company acted as the middleman in part of the €50 billion tangle of unauthorised trades on European shares futures undertaken by Kerviel, 31, over the past 18 months.
Until now both SocGen and Kerviel have insisted that he acted alone in the immense gambles.
Bakir's lawyer said he was "entirely serene" about his client's role in the affair.
- INDEPENDENT
