Lawyer: SocGen 'Condoned' Trader's Deals

The French trader who lost Société Générale $7.2 billion acted with the tacit support of the banking giant's management, which "condoned" his trades, Jérôme Kerviel's lawyer says. The assertion contradicts executives' claims that Kerviel acted alone. "Jérôme is a smart trader, but not smarter than any other guy at SocGen," the lawyer told CNN.

His accounts were nearly $2 billion in the red in June and $1 billion in the black in December—figures so large his supervisors had to be aware of his actions, Guillaume Selnet says. "When you find the bank condoned what Jerome did for more than two years, I don't know if you can still state that he acted alone,"  he said. (More Société Générale stories.)