Kerviel and aide in court on Socgen rogue trades case

PARIS (Reuters) - Jerome Kerviel, blamed by French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) for the trading scandal that cost it billions of euros, appeared for a court hearing on Wednesday along with his former aide Thomas Mougard.

Kerviel, wearing a dark suit, declined to comment to reporters as he entered the Paris financial court. Mougard arrived separately earlier.

SocGen unveiled 4.9 billion euros ($7.08 billion) of losses on January 24, which it said were caused by unauthorized deals carried out by Kerviel, who at the time was a junior trader at the bank.

Kerviel was freed from prison in March after an appeal against his detention, but he remains under formal investigation for breach of trust, computer abuse and falsification.

He has admitted building up non-authorized trading positions but says his supervisors must have been aware of what he was doing.

Last month, the Paris prosecutor's office said Mougard had been placed under investigation for complicity in the affair. Mougard's lawyer has denied any wrongdoing on the part of her client.

The Kerviel affair ranks as the world's worst rogue trading scandal, eclipsing losses in previous scandals, such as Nick Leeson's rogue trades that toppled British merchant bank Barings in 1995.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; editing by Rory Channing)