Jerome Kerviel, former trader of French bank Societe Generale, smokes a cigarette as he stands outside a hotel in Modena, northern Italy March 19, 2014. France's highest court of appeal is set on Wednesday to deliver what may be the final word on the fate of Kerviel, who has spent more than three years fighting a jail sentence over massive market bets that almost brought the bank to the brink of collapse in 2008. Kerviel, 37, turned to the Court of Cassation in 2012 after losing his initial appeal against a three-year jail sentence and a fine of 4.9 billion euros ($6.8 billion), designed to compensate SocGen for its losses when it unwound the trader's mammoth positions in the midst of the financial crisis. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi (ITALY - Tags: BUSINESS CRIME LAW)