HistoricalFrance · civil damages, in euros · Award quashed 19 March 2014 · appeal ruling 23 September 2016
The judgment asterisk
Interest A much smaller award, and it still took years.
Jérôme Kerviel's enormous damages award was overturned. The later award was much smaller.
Read the footnote before ordering the forklift.
The €4.9 billion damages award against Jérôme Kerviel was overturned. On September 23, 2016, the Versailles appeal court ordered €1 million in damages.
These are two court decisions, not his current loan balance or a verified world record.
- Initial damages award, later overturned
- €4,900,000,000
- initial award, quashed by the Cour de cassation on 19 March 2014
- Damages ordered on appeal
- €1,000,000
- Versailles appeal court, 23 September 2016
Three dated legal stages, not two. A Paris court ordered €4.9 billion in damages in 2010; the Cour de cassation quashed the civil half of that judgment on 19 March 2014, leaving the criminal conviction standing; and the Versailles appeal court, sent the civil question afresh, ordered €1 million on 23 September 2016. The middle step matters because without it the first number looks as though it survived until 2016 and was then reduced in one hearing. Nothing here states a present-day balance, what has since been paid, or a most-indebted-person record. Both amounts are euros and are not compared with the dollar company figures in the scene behind them, and neither measures ordinary borrowing.
Sources
- Kerviel doit payer un million d'euros à la Société générale — Chine Labbé, Reuters, syndicated by Boursorama. The report of the Versailles appeal decision ordering €1 million in damages, and of the earlier €4.9 billion award. Retrieved in full on 14 September 2026; an earlier note here said only indexed text had been seen, which was true when written and is not true now. This is Reuters wire copy carried by Boursorama — the byline is Chine Labbé — and the Reuters original is not separately retrievable, so the mirror is the citable copy. No claim about present-day payment status is drawn from it.
- French rogue trader ordered to pay SocGen €1m — RTÉ. Corroborating coverage of the same ruling, retrieved in full on 14 September 2026; an earlier note here said a direct open had failed, which is no longer the case. NOT AN INDEPENDENT WITNESS: this is a rewrite of the same Reuters wire as CAMEO-H08 and carries the identical sourced quotes, so the pair is one account cited twice, not two accounts agreeing. It is kept for readers who cannot reach the French text. The entry stays historical; no final or current balance is inferred.
These historical figures stay separate from the running debt comparison. Source review recorded: 2026-09-13.