PARIS – Lawyers for accused rogue trader Jerome Kerviel contended Friday that Societe Generale had the means to track soaring bets that cost the French banking giant billions — and stop him.

On the final day of Kerviel’s trial, the defense turned on its head the prosecutor’s accusation that the 33-year-old trader was a “manipulator, a trickster, a liar.”

Defense lawyer Olivier Metzner said in closing arguments Friday that Kerviel was “trained, fabricated” by Societe Generale, the bank’s creature “in a virtual world where numbers no longer have any value.”

The soft-spoken Kerviel has maintained throughout the trial that the bank tolerated his massive risk-taking as long as he was making money, a claim the bank denies.

Kerviel had bet up to 50 billion euros ($73 billion at the time) of the bank’s money, costing Societe Generale nearly 5 billion euros once it unwound his positions in January 2008 — one of history’s biggest trading frauds.

Kerviel is charged with forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use. He risks a maximum five years in prison with no possibility of early release and a 375,000 euro fine.

The prosecutor asked the court to convict Kerviel and sentence him to four years in prison and a one-year suspended sentence.

The verdict is expected Oct. 5.

Since the start of the trial, the court has tried to peel away what the prosecution claims is Kerviel’s facade and understand why he gambled sums of money that went beyond what the bank authorized.

During the three-hour-long defense plea, Kerviel’s lawyers, assisted by computers, tried to show that the bank was able to track the trader’s actions as he bet on exotic derivatives.

A question that has haunted the trial was put forth on the first day of the proceedings by presiding Judge Dominique Pauthe: “Who are you, Monsieur Kerviel?”