the latest on Societe Generale and their "rogue trader"

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Jerome Kerviel was able to amass 50 billion euros ($78.7 billion) in unauthorized futures positions at Societe Generale SA because of ``fragmented'' internal controls, a report commissioned by the bank said today.

Kerviel's direct manager was ``weak,'' and the hierarchy failed to ``react in an appropriate manner to several alert signals,'' said the 71-page report from a special committee of the bank's board. Unwinding those positions cost a record 4.9 billion euros, the biggest trading loss in banking history.

His supervisors missed the level of his earnings, cash flows, brokerage expenses and overlooked warnings from Eurex AG, Europe's biggest futures exchange, the report said. Societe Generale's management has said the 31-year-old former trader lied, faked documents and e-mails, and hacked into the bank's computers to carry out and conceal trades. Kerviel is currently at the center of a criminal investigation into the affair.

I'm sorry but this is laughable beyond belief. SoGen is so inept in it's management that it now has to resort to damning supervisors after they damned the trader. They ought to be damning themselves and the whole top tier of the bank should be fired. I still believe they knew what was going on all the time and we very happy with the profits that Kerviel was generating before he blew up.