French Court Convicts Soros of Insider Trading

A French court today convicted US billionaire investor George Soros of insider trading and fined him 2.2m euros.

The fine by the court is the same amount the Hungarian-born magnate was accused of having made from buying stocks at French bank Société Générale with insider knowledge 14 years ago. The fine was in line with the request by prosecutors.

Mr Soros, 72, the president of Soros Fund Management, denies having privileged information. He was not in court today.

In court testimony in November, Mr Soros said: "I have been in business all my life, and I think I know what is insider trading and what isn't."

Société Générale was privatised in 1987. A year later, its stock price went up during an unsuccessful takeover bid. Mr Soros was accused of having obtained insider information before the abortive corporate raid pushed up the stock price.

Mr Soros went on trial with two other men, Jean-Charles Naouri, a former top aide to France's then-finance minister Pierre Beregovoy, and Lebanese businessman Samir Traboulsi. The court cleared both men of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors had sought fines of 290,000 euros for Mr Naouri and 1.98m euros for Mr Traboulsi.

Mr Soros has said he was interested in Société Générale based on information he claims was widely known: France's leftist government of the time favoured takeovers to change the leadership at recently privatised companies. Mr Soros said he was buying stock in many companies and had no reason not to include Société Générale.

Afterward, he sold the stock, saying he felt the takeover attempt was politically motivated and was not going to benefit the company.

Mr Soros was reportedly the first American to earn a billion dollars in a single year. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930, he emigrated to the United States in 1956 and became a citizen five years later. He made his fortune managing investment funds.

Forbes magazine ranked him this year as the 37th richest person in the world, with an estimated $6.9bn fortune.

Prosecutors said the case dragged on because Swiss authorities took years to respond to requests for information. Defence lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the case should be thrown out because it took so long to bring to court.