Court confirms Soros insider trading verdict
A French appeals court on Thursday confirmed a conviction of U.S. billionaire George Soros for insider trading and a 2.2 million euro ($2.87 million) fine.
Hungarian-born Soros had appealed a French court’s 2002 decision which found him guilty of using insider information regarding a failed 1988 corporate raid on bank Societe Generale to make $2 million on the company’s stock.
The financier turned philanthropist told the appeals court last month he did not believe he had done anything wrong.
His lawyers said they would appeal Thursday’s decision.
Societe Generale was privatised in 1987 and its stock rose the following year during an unsuccessful takeover bid. Soros was accused of having obtained insider information before the failed raid drove up the share price.
The financier has said the planned raid on Societe Generale was common knowledge in financial markets and he had not obtained any confidential information.
Lawyers for Soros had argued in 2002 the case was too old to judge. It took 14 years to come to trial because of delays in securing information from authorities in the Netherlands, Britain, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Soros, 74, is best known as “The Man Who Broke the Pound” for betting against sterling in 1992 until London pulled out of the European currency grid that preceded the euro single currency.
Soros’s Quantum Fund made nearly $1 billion in 1992 by betting against sterling. But it was hammered by huge losses in April 2000 due to an ill-timed move into high-tech stocks.
Since then Soros has set about using his fortune and network of foundations to help tackle what he sees as the failures of a global financial market system which penalises poor countries.
法国上诉法院：维持对索罗斯原判
法国一上诉法院周四支持对美国亿万富翁乔治?索罗斯(George Soros)的判决，即认定他犯有内幕交易罪，并对他处以220万欧元(合287万美元)罚款。
出生于匈牙利的索罗斯对法国一法院2002年做出的裁决提起上诉。该裁决裁定，他使用了1988年针对法国兴业银行(Societe Generale)未遂收购的内幕信息，从该公司股票交易中赚取200万美元。
这位由金融家转变而来的慈善家上月对上诉法庭说，他相信自己没有做错任何事。
他的律师表示，他们将就周四的裁决进行上诉。
法国兴业银行于1987年私有化，次年由于针对该银行的一次不成功的收购企图，公司股票在此期间上涨。索罗斯被控在这次未遂收购案推高股价前获得了内幕信息。
索罗斯表示，当时在金融市场上，计划中对兴业银行的收购是众人皆知之事，他不曾获得任何机密信息。
2002年，索罗斯的律师辩称，该案时间过于久远，无法审理。此案花费了14年时间才开庭审理，因为从荷兰、英国、卢森堡和瑞士有关部门获取信息的过程发生了耽搁。
索罗斯现年74岁，他最出名的事迹是在1992年大举做空英镑，迫使英国政府脱离了欧洲货币体系，即欧洲单一货币的前身，从而被誉为“击垮英镑的人”。
索罗斯的量子基金(Quantum Fund)在1992年做空英镑获利近10亿美元。但由于在错误时机投资高科技股票，该基金在2000年4月遭巨幅亏损的打击。
自那以后，索罗斯开始使用他的财富和基金会网络，帮助解决全球金融市场体系中他所认为的缺陷，该体系使穷国处于不利地位。
