PARIS – A French appeals court has accepted a request from Jérôme Kerviel, a former trader convicted of rogue dealings at Société Générale, that he be released from jail and allowed to serve out his three-year sentence with an electronic monitoring bracelet, his lawyer confirmed on Thursday.
After exhausting all available appeals, Mr. Kerviel, 37, turned himself in to the police in May to begin serving his sentence. His surrender came after a three-month trek from Vatican City to the French border, during which he took to social media to protest his 2010 conviction for his role in amassing 50 billion euros in unauthorized trades while working at Société Générale. His trades brought the French bank to the brink of collapse in early 2008.
Mr. Kerviel’s lawyer, David Koubbi, told reporters outside the Paris court of appeal that the former trader expected to be freed on Monday from Fleury-Mérogis prison, south of Paris.
“He will resume a completely normal life,” Mr. Koubbi said, adding that Mr. Kerviel planned to devote a large part of his time after his release to social activism “in France and abroad.’’
Under the terms of his release, Mr. Kerviel will be subject to a curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights, but will have freedom of movement during the weekends, said Magali Josse, an appeals court spokeswoman.
Mr. Kerviel will be required to wear the bracelet until at least June 2015, Ms. Josse said. After that, he will probably remain under probation for the duration of his sentence.
Mr. Kerviel lost two appeals of his conviction, but in March the highest court in France, the Court of Cassation, vacated the order that he compensate Société Générale for the 4.9 billion euros in losses it incurred while unwinding his trades.
The Court of Cassation found that the lower court’s sentence had failed to fully take into account the weaknesses in Société Générale’s risk-management systems at the time of Mr. Kerviel’s illegal trades. The high court has called for a civil trial to determine any damages Mr. Kerviel might have to pay, although no date has been set for those proceedings.
Throughout his legal travails, Mr. Kerviel has never denied falsifying documents and entering fake trades into the computer systems of Société Générale, France’s third-largest bank. But he has maintained that his bosses turned a blind eye to his activities and even tacitly encouraged him, as long as his deals were profitable.