* Lawsuit over Jerome Kerviel, mortgages dismissed
* US judge says Supreme Court ruling compels dismissal (Adds details from opinion, background, byline)
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Societe Generale won the dismissal of a U.S. shareholder lawsuit accusing the French bank of concealing nearly 7 billion euros of losses from a massive trading scandal and exposure to subprime mortgages.
Judge Richard Berman of the federal court in Manhattan said his ruling was compelled by a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that had restricted an investor's ability to sue in U.S. courts over purchases of securities on foreign exchanges.
Shareholders accused Societe Generale, former Chief Executive Daniel Bouton and other officials of ignoring dozens of warnings about rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, whose activity led to a loss of 4.9 billion euros ($6.68 billion) in January 2008.
The shareholders also said the bank hid its residential mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations holdings, and should have taken more losses prior to a 2.05 billion euro ($2.79 billion) writedown the same month. They also said insiders sold shares while knowing of the problems.
Theodore Pintar, a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP representing the plaintiffs, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Societe Generale and its outside law firm also did not immediately return calls.
Berman's ruling is the latest in a series by U.S. judges that narrow an investor's ability to raise fraud claims in U.S. courts against foreign companies, following the Supreme Court ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd.
In that case, the Court said Australian shareholders who bought stock outside the United States in National Australia Bank could not raise securities fraud claims in U.S. courts.
Some judges have interpreted that ruling as barring claims by U.S. investors in cases against Credit Suisse Group Inc, French trainmaker Alstom SA and others.
DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE
Two Societe Generale plaintiffs, the Vermont Pension Investment Committee and a pension fund for boilermakers and blacksmiths, owned common shares bought on the Euronext Paris exchange.
A third, a United Food and Commercial Workers pension fund, owned American depositary receipts traded in New York.
Berman said the Morrison ruling compelled the dismissal of the Vermont and Boilermaker funds' cases, and that it did not matter that they bought their shares in the United States.
He also said the UFCW fund could not recover because "trade in ADRs is considered to be a 'predominantly foreign securities transaction.'"
The judge also said dismissal was appropriate because the plaintiffs failed in their "amalgam of suggestions" to show that Societe Generale should have known its public statements about its risk controls and subprime holdings were inaccurate.
Berman dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again.
Societe Generale shares fell more than 20 percent between Jan. 17, 2008, as rumors of losses started to leak into the market, and Jan. 25, 2008, Reuters data show.
The complaint covered investors who bought securities between Aug. 1, 2005 and Jan. 25, 2008.
Kerviel was tried in June and a verdict is due on Oct. 5. Prosecutors seek a five-year prison sentence.
The case is In re: Societe Generale Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-02495. (1 euro = US$1.363) (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel. Editing by John Wallace and Robert MacMillan)