Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Prosecutors are grilling him. His bosses are suing him. Securities regulators are dissecting his toxic trades.

Jerome Kerviel has gotten through Step One: he's hired a couple of lawyers, who may yet manage to make the case that their client was only doing what his bosses allowed.

But there is so much more work to do to ensure a fruitful and productive post-blowup future.

Kerviel's now-famous $7.2 billion loss on the trading desk at Societe Generale puts him in a league where book agents and movie producers will be punching his number into speed-dial. The name ``Jerome Kerviel'' has well over a half-million hits on Google as I write this sentence. A week ago, Google could barely cough up a reference to the guy.

In short, he is a rookie in the dicey job of former- alleged-rogue trader. And like all beginners, Jerome Kerviel needs a role model.

As luck would have it, financial history is rich with examples of traders who got caught and prospered after they gamed the system.

Most memorable is Nick Leeson, the trader who brought $1.4 billion in losses to Barings Plc in 1995 (the London-based bank collapsed), landed a movie deal and hit the speaking circuit. Leeson's is ``one of the most spectacular debacles in modern financial history,'' says NWP Live, the London-based speakers bureau that books Leeson at between 6,000 and 10,000 pounds ($11,900-$19,900) a night.

Taking Up Writing

He also embarked on a literary career, writing a pair of books, the most recent sporting a title that's a virtual survival guide for the rogue trader: ``Back from the Brink: Coping With Stress'' (2005).

He has role-model potential, but comes with baggage. Leeson spent 3 1/2 years in a Singapore prison. That did put a bit of a damper on getting the new career going. And his movie, ``Rogue Trader,'' starring Ewan McGregor, was a dud that didn't do much to polish the Leeson brand.

To get on the right track, Kerviel would do best to emulate someone who got in trouble, but didn't do time.

Someone like Joseph Jett, the former Kidder, Peabody & Co. trader. These days, Jett does look like a bit of a piker compared with the man from SocGen. He was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of ``creating the illusion of profit,'' where there was none, leading to a $210 million charge against Kidder's 1994 earnings.

No Charges

The Justice Department interviewed Jett about his trading, but never pressed criminal charges against him. Jett had another win when a private arbitration panel told Kidder to free up $1 million from his personal account, which the firm had frozen. He said Kidder was aware of how he was accounting for trades, and denied wrongdoing.

Whoever's fault it was, General Electric Co., which owned Kidder, had its fill of the securities business after the Jett episode and sold the ailing brokerage to PaineWebber in 1994.

The Jett model seems to make for a solid rogue road map -- cause a disaster, blame it on the firm and walk away a free man. Kerviel's lawyers look like they already have taken a step down this path. Societe Generale, they say, is using Kerviel's trading as a ``smokescreen'' to divert attention from the bank's subprime problems.

Like Leeson, Jett has written two books, one of which was pulled from the shelves amid threats of litigation. He told the New York Times in 2004 that he gets between $4,000 and $8,000 a pop on the lecture circuit. With a career like this, what's not to like about getting in trouble with a little off-the-books trading?

On Edge

A rogue with a future, of course, needs to have a little edge. Jett wouldn't be so interesting if he'd been let off the hook by everyone. He keeps his bad-boy image because the SEC hit him with a $200,000 fine, $8 million in restitution, and a lifetime bar from the securities industry.

He hasn't paid the SEC, and is running an investment business anyway. Jett didn't return telephone calls or e-mail seeking comment.

For Kerviel, a promising new career as a supposed rogue already is taking shape. Kerviel Web sites have popped up to keep readers apprised of the latest developments, linking users to products from Nick Leeson T-shirts to books about trading scandals. The http://jeromekerviel.com/ site sports a section called ``Le Judo Shop Jerome'' in honor of Kerviel, who gave judo lessons to kids.

Future Beckons

When the headlines dwindle and Kerviel is ready to set up his own company, his mentor Jett has a Web page rich with ideas. ``Few in fund management have the experience of our team, trading a $37 billion portfolio and heading a 43 man trading desk,'' says http://jettcapital.com/jettcapital/index.htm, the site for Jett's private investment-management firm in Princeton, New Jersey. That reference would be to the trading desk that melted down at Kidder.

Using Jett's example, Kerviel's Web page might say: ``Few in trading have my experience, with an internationally renowned background in discreetly managing a multibillion-dollar portfolio.'' Jerome, a new career beckons. We can't wait to see you on Oprah.

(Susan Antilla is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Susan Antilla in New York at santilla@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 4, 2008 00:05 EST