PARIS — Two days after abruptly suspending what he had billed as an almost spiritual trek from Vatican City to Paris, the convicted rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel resumed his pilgrimage late Sunday, heading toward the French border ahead of a midnight deadline for him to turn himself in to the French authorities.
"I am walking and I am returning to France," a freshly shaven Mr. Kerviel, bearing a red backpack, told a group of reporters as he left his hotel in Ventimiglia, on the Italian Riviera, shortly after 7 p.m. local time. "I have always assumed my responsibilities."
Ventimiglia is less than 10 miles from the French town of Menton, where the former trader had been ordered to surrender before Monday to begin serving a three-year sentence for fraud.
If he failed to appear, the authorities warned, he would be considered a fugitive and an international warrant would be issued for his arrest.
Mr. Kerviel, 37, was convicted in 2010 for his role in amassing 50 billion euros, or $68.5 billion, in unauthorized trades while working at Société Générale. He was also ordered to compensate the French bank for the €4.9 billion in losses it incurred while unwinding his trades.
Mr. Kerviel has lost two appeals of his conviction, but in March the highest court in France, the Court of Cassation, vacated the order that he pay restitution. 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 called for a civil trial to determine any damages Mr. Kerviel might have to pay.
The Élysée Palace issued a statement late Saturday saying it was prepared to consider a formal request from Mr. Kerviel for a presidential pardon. But the former trader rebuffed that offer on Sunday, insisting that he was innocent.
"Asking for a pardon is admitting you're guilty, something I've been fighting for six years," he said. "I will never get down on my knees in front of such an unfair ruling."
Instead, Mr. Kerviel urged President François Hollande to grant immunity to witnesses who he said would be willing to testify in support of a criminal complaint Mr. Kerviel filed last month alleging that Société Générale had paid off a witness in his original trial.
The bank has dismissed Mr. Kerviel's allegation as unfounded.
Mr. Kerviel has never denied falsifying documents and entering fake trades into Société Générale's computer systems. 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.
Mr. Kerviel's legal battles had largely disappeared from the headlines in recent years, overshadowed by other, more spectacular banking transgressions. But he resurfaced early this year after it emerged that he and his lawyer, David Koubbi, had spoken with Pope Francis outside St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In interviews and Twitter posts since then, Mr. Kerviel, a lapsed Catholic, has described his meeting with the pope as a transformative moment that inspired him to undertake his 1,000-mile trek, spreading his message about the "tyranny" of the financial markets.
source : http://rss.nytimes.com/c/34625/f/640316/s/3a8f06f9/sc/24/l/0L0Snytimes0N0C20A140C0A50C190Cbusiness0Cinternational0Cconvicted0Etrader0Eresumes0Ehis0Etrek0Etoward0Eprison0Bhtml0Dpartner0Frss0Gemc0Frss/story01.htm
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