The Daily Caveat is written by Michael Thomas, a recovering corporate investigator in the Washington, DC-area.

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1/24/2008
Societe Generale Reveals Multi-Billion Dollar Fraud

Jerome Kerviel. That's a name you'll be hearing more of. This unremarkable 31 year old options trader cost investment bank Societe Generale $7 billion.

A complaint from a shareholder prompted the initial investigation late last week, which revealed that SG was out billions due to an elaborate series of fictitious trades, apparently perpetrated by Kerviel, who bet big on EU stock market upswings that didn't transpire.

The losses, while astonishing in size, were hidden from management by Kerviel who was able to leverage his knowledge of bank administration and procedure to cloak his activities, albeit not permanently.

I can only imagine that this was a very, very long weekend indeed for the folks at SG. And how did Kerviel, who lost hundreds of times his own salary in other peoples' money - how did he manage to go to work every day since? I can't imagine...a crazy, crazy thing.

So, what else do we know about this guy? Well...here's a rundown of what's out there:

• The WSJ digs in on the question - Who is this dude?

• Alphaville has the first picture.

• SkyNews offers video coverage.

• The Telegraph turns up Kerviel's CV.

• Paul Kedrosky scopes out Kerviel's dwindling Facebook friend count.

• Grown folks can get LinkedIn with Kerviel right here.

• Streetwise explains why we have Kerviel to thank for the Fed's rate cut.

• And, lastly, the FT provides a star-studded list of rogue traders past.