In George Soros, who was convicted of insider trading by a French court in 2002, failed on Wednesday to get that conviction reversed by a French appeals court.  He then was dressed down by the judge who said Mr. Soros should have realized that he risked violating insider-trading laws when he pocketed more than $3mn from dealing in shares of French bank Société Générale 2 decades ago. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that France's insider-trading laws of the period were clear enough to hold Soros criminally responsible. This ruling comes in spite of a separate investigation by the French stock market regulator that failed to find wrongdoing. Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2002 by a French appeals court and fined 2.2mn euros - approximating his illicit $3mn profits - after a Paris court found that he had bought and sold shares of Société Générale in 1988 with the knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target.  Two co-defendants, one a former senior official of the French finance ministry, were acquitted. Facts Underlying the Trading. The case dates back to the privatization of Société Générale by a center-right government in 1987.  The following year, a Socialist-led government sought to regain control of the bank.  Sensing an opportunity for gain, a group of investors connected with French financier Georges Pébereau devised a plan to acquire control of the bank, sending its share price soaring. Pébereau’s raid was ultimately unsuccessful. But in September 1988, an associate of Pébereau informed Soros in a telephone conversation of the plans for the bid, according to court testimony in the case. France’s stock market regulator opened an investigation into the case in 1989, but determined that Mr. Soros had not violated French insider rules, which at the time only restricted employees of the companies concerned from trading on privileged information. The law was revised in 1990 to apply to third parties. Soros’s Paris-based lawyer, Ron Soffer, said the discrepancy between the findings by the market regulator and that of the criminal court demonstrate that French insider trading laws at the time were too vague to be enforced consistently. ”The court seems to be saying that Soros and other investors should somehow have had a clearer view of the law than the people who were charged with applying it,” Soffer said, referring to market regulators. Soffer said Soros would appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber of human rights court. If the Grand Chamber agrees to hear the case, a ruling could be expected late next year or in 2013, he said.    [Dealbook, 10/6/11]