Jérôme Kerviel, the rogue trader accused of losing almost €5 billion (3.7 billion) at Société Générale, is back in work – although not in a trading room.

Less than three months after being dismissed by SocGen, Mr Kerviel has been employed by Jean-Raymond Lemaire, an information technology executive who runs LCA, a software company based near Paris.

“Jérôme Kerviel has had a post as a consultant since the beginning of April,” Mr Lemaire said, but he refused to divulge the nature of Mr Kerviel’s work. According to Le Point, the French magazine, he is still in training.

Placed under formal investigation on suspicion of breach of trust, fabricating documents and illegally accessing computers, the trader was remanded in custody in February before being granted bail a month later.

LCA’s pledge of a job was used by his lawyers in court to support his bail application. However, the bail conditions banned Mr Kerviel from meeting other people involved in the case – including Mr Lemaire, who had housed him for a few days after the scandal broke in January.

“The judges apparently made a mistake because Jérôme is now working for me,” Mr Lemaire said last night. “The ban is no longer relevant.” He declined to clarify his comments, which appeared to suggest that the ban had been lifted. A second bail condition bars Mr Kerviel from working – or even setting foot – in a trading room. This condition has not been lifted.

Although he worked with computers at SocGen, he has no experience as a software programmer and has a degree in finance rather than computing.

Mr Kerviel’s unauthorised deals have been blamed for plunging the French bank into the biggest rogue trader scandal in history. When his positions were unwound, the loss was €4.9 billion, according to the bank. Mr Kerviel says colleagues and managers knew of his dealings and turned a blind eye as long as he was making a profit.

The Times revealed that he plans to contest his dismissal by SocGen.

This week, it also emerged that Eric Cordelle, 36, his manager, had applied to become a civil plaintiff in the criminal case against Mr Kerviel.

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