Shareholders heckle SocGen chiefs over losses at AGM

PARIS (AFP) — Shareholders heckled and jeered management of French bank Societe Generale at its annual general meeting on Tuesday, taking them to task for the loss of billions blamed on a rogue trader.

Chairman Daniel Bouton, who has resisted heavy pressure to resign over the scandal, was booed down when he insisted that rogue trader Jerome Kerviel's multi-billion euro (dollars) trades were "concealed" from management.

"The employee was jailed but it is the bosses who should have gone," said one man to loud applause, charging that management had turned the bank into a "casino."

"We are grumblers and well, I am going to grumble," another shareholder told the board, whose reputation was shredded by the 4.9 billion euros (7.75 billion dollars) loss taken on Kerviel's market bets.

Kerviel spent 37 days in police detention before being freed on bail in mid-March, and awaits a ...