PARIS (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights agreed on Wednesday to examine billionaire George Soros's complaint against a 2002 conviction for insider trading in shares of French bank Societe Generale.
It marks the latest twist in a 20-year legal saga that has its roots in a corporate raider's abortive attempt to buy SocGen during the presidency of Socialist Francois Mitterrand.
The Strasbourg-based court agreed to examine 80-year-old Soros's complaint that French insider trading laws had been too unclear for him to realize he was doing anything wrong in 1988, when he made 2.3 million dollars on the sale of SocGen stock.
Soros at the time had been invited to join an allegedly government-backed plan led by former civil servant and tycoon Georges Pebereau -- brother of current BNP Paribas Chairman Michel -- to buy recently privatized SocGen.
Soros refused to take part but made profitable trades in the bank's shares a few days later.
Although several French financiers were charged alongside Soros after the market watchdog alerted the authorities, only the Hungarian-born hedge fund mogul was convicted and eventually fined 940,500 euros ($1.22 million) for the shares that were bought on the French market.
Soros's Paris-based lawyer Ron Soffer said by telephone a decision by the court could be expected within months.
According to the European convention of human rights, no one can be convicted of an act that is not considered an infraction under national or international law.
Soros argues that French insider trading law in 1988 only concerned those who had direct business ties to the company being traded, which was not the case for him.
The French government, however, has said its court system was acting within its remit according to European law and that insider trading jurisprudence prior to 1988 would have clearly forewarned Soros of the illegality of his actions.
The European court said that both parties' arguments left "serious questions" unanswered over this issue and that further examination was necessary.
(Reporting by Lionel Laurent and Gilbert Reilhac; Editing by Charles Dick)
