Rogue Trader Loses Billions of Dollars

The SocGen trader was familiar with the bank’s internal controls

A Paris-based trader working for Societe Generale has cheated the French bank out of 4.9bn euros ($7.1bn), in what appears to be the biggest fraud by a single trader in banking history. Societe Generale said it discovered last week that a trader concealed massive trading positions built up over 2007 and 2008 through “a scheme of elaborate fictitious transactions”.

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The bank alleges he used in-depth knowledge of the control procedures gained while working in the bank’s middle office in his former job.

He joins a long line of “rogue traders”, whose dodgy dealings have cost their employers dearly.

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