Billionaire Soros on trial for insider dealing

George Soros, the hedge fund manager and philanthropist, went on trial in Paris yesterday with two other businessmen accused of insider trading in shares in the French bank Société Générale in 1988.

Mr Soros, the president of Soros Fund Management in New York, appeared at the Paris Criminal Court for the opening of the trial in which he and the other businessmen are accused of buying stock in SocGen before a failed takeover that pushed up the price.

Only four of 11 people who were originally placed under formal investigation are left, following a French judge's decision to dismiss charges against the others. Two businessmen implicated in the scandal ­ Edward Safra and Robert Maxwell ­ have since died.

The other two defendants are Jean-Charles Naouri, the former head of the office of then-finance minister Pierre Beregovoy and the Lebanese businessman Samir Traboulsi. The court yesterday ordered medical analysis for the fourth man facing the charges, the 88-year-old former French banker Jean-Pierre Peyraud. His case will come up again in January.

All deny the allegations. Soros said he hoped the trial would "show that I am not involved, that I got inadvertently involved in this situation".