Fabrice Tourre is the trader at the centre of the Securities and Exchange Commission's fraud investigation into investment bank Goldman Sachs. He, along with the investment bank, faces accusations of making misleading statements in connection with the sale of complex financial products based on sub-prime mortgages. Mr Tourre is appearing along with the bank's chief executive Lloyd Blankfein in front of a US Senate investigation into the causes of the financial crisis. In connection with the investigation, Goldman Sachs released private emails Mr Tourre sent in 2007 using his Goldman Sachs mail account. The candid messages are likely to form a part of the SEC's case. Goldman Sachs and Mr Tourre deny the SEC's charges. The emails date from the first half of 2007. Fabrice Tourre has since relocated to London. 23 JANUARY 2007 "...More and more leverage in the system, the entire system is about to crumble any moment...the only potential survivor the fabulous Fab (as Mitch would kindly call me, even though there is nothing fabulous abt me...) standing in the middle of all these complex, highly levered, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all the implications of those monstruosities !!!" 29 JANUARY 2007 "When I think that I had some input into the creation of this product (which by the way is a product of pure intellectual masturbation, the type of thing which you invent telling yourself: "Well, what if we created a "thing", which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical and which nobody knows how to price?") it sickens the heart to see it shot down in mid-flight...It's a little like Frankenstein turning against his own inventor ;)" 7 MARCH 2007 "... I will give you more details in person on what we spoke about but the summary of the US subprime business situation is that it is not too brilliant...According to Sparks [Daniel Sparks, a former head of the mortgages department at Goldman], that business is totally dead, and the poor little subprime borrowers will not last so long!!!...I do not intend to wait for the complete explosion of the industry and the beginning of distressed trading, I think there might be more interesting things to do in Europe..." 13 JUNE 2007 "Just made it to the country of your favorite clients [Belgians]!!! I'm managed to sell a few abacus bonds [Abacus was one of Goldman Sachs's Collateralised Debt Obligations, tied to the performance of sub-prime mortgage-backed securities] to widows and orphans that I ran into at the airport..."



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