‘Fabulous Fab’ won’t appeal fraud verdict
‘Fab’ is finished. ExGoldman Sachs fraudster Fabrice Tourre said Tuesday that he won’t appeal a federal court jury decision that found him liable for defrauding investors in a complex mortgage securities deal.
Tourre is one of the few people to be held responsible for improper behavior in the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.
The Frenchman has already paid a fine of $825,000.
A Manhattan jury found the exWall Street trader liable on six counts of fraud last August in a civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“After careful consideration, I have decided not to pursue a lengthy appeal process which, if successful, would lead to a retrial,” he said in a statement. “While my lawyers have advised me there are strong grounds to appeal, I prefer to move forward with my education and close this difficult chapter of my life.”
Tourre, 35, who called himself “Fabulous Fab” in emails to his girlfriend, scammed investors in complex mort gage securities called Abacus — one of the deals that contributed to the financial crisis.
He’s since moved on to getting his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago.
But that hasn’t gone so fabulously, either. Tourre was supposed to teach an honors economics course, but the school abruptly scrapped that plan.
The banker gained notoriety for his emails, where he bragged about the deals he sold even though the global financial system was on the verge of collapse.
“More and more leverage in the sys tem, The whole building is about to collapse anytime now,” he wrote in one. “Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab[rice Tourre] ... standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities!!!”
The deals were made up of mortgages — some of which were picked by hedgefund manager John Paulson — that were the most likely to fail.
Goldman settled its portion of the Abacus probe for $550 million without admitting wrongdoing.