SEC tells jurors in fraud lawsuit of Fabrice Tourre’s make believe
FORMER Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre should not be allowed to get away with deceiving investors in a mortgage deal that went bad in the financial crisis, an SEC lawyer told jurors who will decide a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the regulatory agency.
On the final day of a more than two-week trial, US Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Matthew Martens said to the jurors that the one-time Goldman Sachs vice president sold investors on a “land of make believe” that cost them $1bn.
“Now Mr. Tourre wants you to live in that land as well,” Martens said.
The arguments came in the SEC’s closing salvo in what has become the highest-profile trial stemming from its investigations of the 2008 financial crisis.
The trial centres on a synthetic collateralised debt obligation based on subprime mortgage securities known as Abacus 2007-AC1.
In closing arguments by the defence, lawyer Sean Coffey depicted his client as a “remarkable young man” facing an “unjust charge”.