Compare the general format and content of the audit report shown in Exhibit 4 with the standard audit report issued under U.S. GAAS. What are the key differences between those two audit reports? Which report format is the most informative?

The Special Committee appointed by Societe Generale's board to investigate the Jerome Kerviel affair issued its final report in May 2008. That report largely contradicted Daniel Bouton's assertion that the bank had adequate internal controls but had been victimized by an ingenious fraud. The New York Times summarized the lengthy report by observing that "weak management and insufficient risk controls" permitted Kerviel to sustain his fraud for several years.29 Shortly after this report was released, Bouton resigned as Societe Generale's CEO, and Kerviel's two former supervisors were dismissed by the bank.

Numerous civil lawsuits stemming from the Societe Generale fraud have been filed in France and the United States. One of the largest of these lawsuits, a class-action lawsuit filed by Societe Generale's U.S. stockholders against the company and its management team, was dismissed in late 2010 by a U.S. federal judge. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs could not pursue the lawsuit in U.S. courts because they had purchased their Societe Generale stock principally on foreign stock exchanges.

In October 2010, Jerome Kerviel was found guilty of the three criminal charges that had been filed against him. Kerviel was sentenced to three years in prison. In what was characterized by the French press as a largely "symbolic" move, the presiding judge also ordered Kerviel to repay Societe Generale the more than six billion euros that the bank had lost on the unauthorized securities trades he executed in January 2008.