The Wall Street Journal-20080130-Kerviel- -I Never Meant to Become Rich-

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Kerviel: 'I Never Meant to Become Rich'

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Jerome Kerviel, the trader at the center of the Societe Generale debacle, was a midlevel employee who made a relatively modest base salary of about 50,000 euros in 2007. In an interview with French investigators over the weekend, he claimed not to have been driven by money in making his unauthorized trades. But he did say that he sought a sizable bonus target of 600,000 euros for 2007. He also sought to share the blame with supervisors.

These remarks, confirmed by prosecutors and his lawyer yesterday, provide the deepest insight so far into his thinking.

On his motives: "What motivated me to do these trades was . . . above all making the bank gain money. This was my foremost motivation, and I never meant to become rich."

Sharing the blame: "I cannot believe that my superiors did not realize the amount I was risking. It is impossible to generate such profit with small positions. That's what leads me to say that while I was positive [in the black], my supervisors closed their eyes on the methods I was using and the volumes I was trading. A trader can't generate so much cash on a daily basis with standard activities."

On his status: "I understood, as soon as I had my first interview in 2005, that I wasn't considered as highly as the others because of my university degree and my professional experience. That's because I got to the front office via the middle office, and I was alone in doing that."

On his bonus targets: "For 2007, I tried to negotiate a bonus of 600,000 euros." He added that a supervisor "led me to understand that I couldn't hope for more than 300,000 euros." (Mr. Kerviel's lawyer said her client hadn't been paid any bonus.)

(See related article: "France Pressures Bank To Dump Besieged Chief Societe Generale Board To Weigh Bouton's Fate; Foreign Suitors at Bay" -- WSJ Jan. 30, 2008)