His name is known to everyone. He was described as a “crook, fraudster, terrorist”, in the words of Daniel Bouton, then director of Société Générale. A “genius of fraud”, for Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France at the time. A fuse too. Atypical and taciturn, multiplying media stunts such as when he decided to meet the Pope and return on foot to Paris from Rome, his fight was presented as that of David against Goliath. Who really is Jérôme Kerviel, at the origin of one of the most resounding financial affairs of the 21st century, in 2008?
This documentary series in four 45-minute episodes, the first on the Max platform where it will be put online on November 29, retraces this incredible story in detail. To understand how, in January 2008, a small hand from the bank's trading room endangered Société Générale, one of the flagships of French finance, after having taken 50 billion euros worth of financial positions, causing a loss of almost five billion euros. It is devoured like a good thriller with many twists and turns.
An extraordinary story
What is fascinating is that she gives the floor at length to the main person concerned, Jérôme Kerviel himself, sentenced on appeal, in 2015, to repay one million euros to Société Générale (after a three-year sentence). firm and 4.9 billion in damages at first instance). Mid-length salt-and-pepper hair, piercing gaze, the 47-year-old ex-trader is sitting on a chair in the middle of a huge abandoned open space, which could be that of a high tower in La Défense . The staging is meant to be muscular and dynamic. And the series avoids the pitfall of losing the public in the maze of legal proceedings.
The director also collected the testimonies of the other main protagonists of the affair, in more classic settings: Daniel Bouton, former CEO of Société Générale, but also Luc François then responsible for the trading room, the former director of the group's communications, but also lawyers from Kerviel, a communications advisor, former colleagues, François Hollande.
Everything here seems out of the norm. Everyone recounts the shock of the news, the crisis unit, the consequences. There is a lot of trading room jargon. But ultimately, you don't need to be a financial expert to understand. The traders, economists and journalists interviewed explain in simple words the mechanisms and practices of the environment and what happened in this specific case.
The silent ex-trader deciphers the infernal spiral
Even more interesting, Kerviel tells how he got there, the little guy from Pont-l'Abbé (Finistère), son of a boilermaker and a hairdresser who would never have imagined becoming a trader at La Défense. Monotone, not very expressive, the taciturn ex-trader deciphers the infernal spiral that pushed him to always want more.
Until “becoming high, addicted to performance and making more money”, he admits, lucidly. The man who called a clairvoyance office 460 times in 2007 explains that he “exploded countless computer mice” through pressure while waiting for a market turnaround. With this feeling of “walking on water”, as he says, when his positions generate astronomical gains for the bank.
His line of defense has been the same since the start. His superiors knew of his actions and allowed him to do so. By congratulating him, by closing his eyes, he believes that they encouraged him to take these positions for astronomical amounts. A version corroborated by Philippe Houbé, account manager of the bank at the time, who believes that “the legend according to which no one saw anything is impossible”, and by Nathalie Le Roy, former commander of the financial brigade who investigated the case. Société Générale will have obtained a tax credit of 2.2 billion euros from Bercy to compensate for the loss suffered.
Where is Kerviel today? He goes from apartment to apartment. Can't find work with that surname, so cumbersome. “All his things fit in a bag,” summarizes Clémence, a friend. He seems to be hampered in his ability to build a future for himself. »
documentary series by Fred Garson in four 45-minute episodes. Available November 29 on Max.
