MANUEL ZABRANIECKI, the second broker to have been detained by French financial police investigating the Société Générale rogue trading scandal, was back at his desk yesterday having been released without charge.
Mr Zabraniecki, an equities broker at SG Securities, part of SocGen's corporate investment division, had been taken in for questioning from the Paris headquarters of France's second biggest bank on Wednesday.
He was released late in the evening and is understood to have gone back to work.
Mr Zabraniecki's release comes ahead of today's hearing before a Paris appeal court of Jérôme Kerviel's application for bail. Mr Kerviel is blamed by SocGen for engineering an alleged fraud, resulting in the bank losing €4.9 billion. Mr Kerviel has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
The public prosecutor said yesterday he would request that Mr Kerviel was kept in jail while the investigation continued.
"It is important to preserve all useful proof to reveal the truth and prevent any possible fraudulent collusion," a spokeswoman said.
Mr Kerviel was questioned yesterday alongside two of his superiors, whose names were not released. Two magistrates are trying to determine how much Mr Kerviel's superiors knew about his trades. SocGen has said the trader seemed to be acting alone.
SocGen has alleged Mr Kerviel built up unauthorised futures positions of €50 billion by faking contracts. - (Financial Times service)
