Jerome Kerviel, the French trader accused of losing almost €5 billion (£4 billion) at Société Générale, has blamed his actions on his managers.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the end of the investigation into the Société Générale scandal, Mr Kerviel insisted that he could not have gambled away so much without his superiors' knowledge.

"Everything was visible. I took my positions in front of everyone, in front of managers. I wanted to earn money for my bank, all my operations were seen, monitored and controlled," he told RTL radio in France.

"Do you honestly believe a €15 billion operation could go unnoticed and that the bank would ask no questions. For my part, I wasn't hiding myself. I was at the middle of the desk and everyone could see me work."

Rogue traders' profit boosted SocGen bonuses

Jerome Kerviel's lawyer claims executives at the French bank benefited from the successful investments of the rogue trader

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BACKGROUND

• Who Knew What and When?

• SocGen director probed over €100m share sale

• Ex-SocGen risk auditor calls systems a sham

Related Links

• SocGen rogue trader 'hit the jackpot' on 7/7

• SocGen new accounts dive after trader scandal

• Rogue trader could be sued by manager

Multimedia

• Full coverage of the SocGen scandal

Mr Kerviel, 32, and his former assistant, Thomas Mougard, are expected to face trial over charges that they concealed a series of risky derivatives trades from his bosses, which exposed SocGen to massive losses.

At the time, the losses amounted to one of the biggest rogue trading scandals in history and shook confidence in French banks. Since then many banks have written off far greater sums over sub-prime meltdown.

Judges Renaud van Ruymbeke and Francoise Desset have submitted the conclusions of their inquiry to state prosecutors.

Mr Kerviel is accused of breach of trust, fabricating documents and illegally accessing computers. Mr Mougard, 24, was charged last year with "complicity in introducing false data into a computer system".

SocGen denies Mr Kerviel's claims that managers knew of his trades, and the judges signalled during their investigation that they regarded Mr Kerviel as an unreliable witness.

In his RTL interview, Mr Kerviel alleged that other SocGen traders broke the bank's rules but he said he would not betray their names to police. "One thing you have to keep in mind, is that all of our acts and gestures were overseen in real time. We are all next to each other, and we can hear exactly what each other are saying on the phone," he said. "You couldn't do anything without being seen."

Mr Kerviel admitted that he had made some "bloody stupid mistakes" but said that his supervisors had encouraged him and that on a good day he could make up to a million euros profit through his trading.

"The first trade that I made was for €200,000. My hand was trembling - that's almost the price of a house. After a week I had forgotten the fear," he said. "I allowed myself to fall into a self-perpetuating spiral onto which my bosses poured oil, so that it turned at top speed. At no point did anyone yell 'stop'. I would have liked someone to have said, 'Enough with this stupidity.'"

Mr Kerviel repeated his longstanding charge that SocGen had "pulled the strings" in the investigation to leave him carrying the can for the bank.

He became a minor celebrity in France when the scandal broke and hailed as a hero by some anti-capitalistist, but in the interview he insisted that he was a private man and begged to be left alone by press and public.

"It would suit me just fine to not be followed, that my life not be laid out in the newspapers, that utter lies not be written about me, that things I said not be stolen, that photos of me not be stolen," he complained. "It's not in my nature to express myself, to expose myself. I just want to be forgotten."

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