for a few billion more

As surprising as it may seem, Jérôme Kerviel proved, in 2008, that it was possible to invest 50 billion euros with complete discretion. And cause a behemoth like a banking establishment to lose five. Today, behind his computer keyboard, the former trader makes fun of this former employer on social networks, with whom he fought hard in court. As if this story had not stopped haunting him.

With unpublished testimonies and an ambitious staging, the platform Max sheds light on the affair which traumatized the markets and Société Générale, this French-style Goldman Sachs which had made a specialty of derivative products. The bank suffered greatly from this scandal. Kerviel was sentenced in 2010 to three years in prison, partly free under an electronic bracelet, and 4.9 billion euros in damages (reduced to 1 million euros on appeal).

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At the same time as he paints an instructive and unadvantageous portrait of finance, Fred Garson, a director from fiction, highlights the reasons for a fiasco, which the bank was unable to anticipate. This was criticized, in particular by the political sphere, on both its left and its right, who saw in this affair the incarnation of unbridled capitalism incapable of reasoning. The subprime crisis would prove that these recriminations were not unfounded.

A dangerous game

The film also shows how much – since nothing or almost nothing resists psychology – the Kerviel affair is also and above all due to the personality of its protagonist. A young trader who visibly compensated for his lack of self-confidence with a desperate search for professional success… He testifies here. Pinpoints the flaws in the chains of control and recounts the small arrangements between traders. He describes the intoxication of the millions who fall, like worry (« until vomiting ») caused by failed investments. The stock market is a dangerous game and Jérôme Kerviel had become « addicted ».

When the bank's management becomes aware of the situation, all these billions placed by its trader, they pale. « We realize that we are going to sink and that by falling, we will bring down the whole system »remembers the communications director at the time. Naturally, and this is the whole point of the documentary, the versions of the company's management and Jérôme Kerviel do not always overlap. The trader feels like he is being stalked. The bosses, to be fooled. Fifteen years later, everyone speaks with open hearts, or at least that is the impression they give in front of the camera.

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Warned of the possible rout, the Bank of France gave three days to resolve the situation, before making it public. The Élysée, because Nicolas Sarkozy would be too « bawd »according to the communications manager at the time, was not immediately taken into confidence. Locked in a room, condemned to secrecy, a trader is responsible for removing dangerous investments one by one. The task is long. After all, Société Générale discovered that it had lost 6.3 billion euros. Jérôme Kerviel, with his acrobatic investments which did not seem so shocking until then, had made him earn 1.4 billion the previous year. He should have, but all the dead players say how difficult it is to go to bed on time…