Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet didn’t help hide losses at Credit Lyonnais SA in 1992 and 1993 while he led the French Treasury, a court ruled.

The court of appeals in Versailles, near Paris, rejected a complaint today by a former investor who said Trichet and Credit Lyonnais board member Jean-Pascal Beaufret worked with auditors to conceal the scope of the problems ahead of a government bailout. Investor Alain Geniteau sued in 1994.

Credit Lyonnais, then France’s largest bank and controlled by the state, ran up an estimated 15 billion euros in losses in the 1990s after buying assets including Paris real estate, a Hollywood film studio and golf courses. The government bailed out the bank in 1995, and Credit Agricole SA took it over in 2003.

Beaufret and Trichet “were exonerated, it’s the end” of the lawsuit, said Trichet lawyer Yves Baudelot, outside the courtroom.

Trichet and Beaufret, the Treasury’s representative to the bank’s board, were cleared of criminal charges in June 2003. That enabled Trichet to leave his post as Bank of France governor for his current position at the European Central Bank.

Prosecutors didn’t appeal that ruling, leaving investor Geniteau, a lawyer in Brest, France, to pursue the allegations as a civil complaint.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Smith in Paris at hsmith26@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 09:13 EST