After a 14-year investigation, a French court today convicted the American financier George Soros of insider trading and fined him 2.2 million euros ($2.3 million), the amount prosecutors said he had profited from the trading. Mr. Soros, who was not present in the courtroom, called the verdict unfounded and said he would appeal.

Mr. Soros, chairman and president of Soros Fund Management, is one of the world's richest fund managers, and probably its most famous. He is best known for making huge and very successful speculative bets in currency markets, and for his extensive philanthropy, most notably in countries of Eastern Europe.

Prosecutors accused Mr. Soros of buying stakes in four formerly state-owned companies in France, including one of the country's leading banks, Société Générale, for his Quantum Endowment Fund in 1988 based on confidential information. The stakes were worth a total of about $50 million at the time.

Two other defendants in the case -- Jean-Charles Naouri, 53, a former senior official in the French finance ministry, and Samir Traboulsi, 64, a French citizen of Lebanese origin -- were acquitted. At a hearing a month ago, prosecutors recommended fines for all three men, and suggested the $2.3 million figure for Mr. Soros as a minimum penalty.