Jail looms for bank’s rogue trader Jerome Kerviel when he returns to France

Rogue trader Jerome Kerviel could finally be behind bars this weekend after being ordered to present himself at a police station as soon as he returns to France.

Kerviel, whose high-risk trading cost bank Societe Generale nearly €5 billion (HK$53 billion), is on a walk from Rome to Paris intended to highlight what he regards as the unfair treatment he has received from the courts.

Kerviel embarked on the walk after briefly meeting Pope Francis on February 19. He was still in Italy a month later when France's top appeal court upheld his 2010 conviction for breach of trust, forgery and entering false data.

The charges relate to unauthorised deals that brought one of the biggest banks in Europe to the brink of bankruptcy.

The ruling left Kerviel, who served 41 days in pre-trial detention in 2008, liable to be imprisoned at any time.

Under an order issued by the prosecutor's office in Paris, Kerviel must present himself by Sunday at the latest at a police station in the Riviera border town of Menton.