Goldman's Tourre responds to SEC allegations

Fabrice Tourre, the executive director at the centre of the SEC CDO mis-selling case against Goldman Sachs, has taken the unusual step of filing his own answer to the SEC’s complaint, despite Goldman having settled the case.

In the court filing, see 100719 Tourre answer (PDF, 59.7 kb), Tourre denies that he made any materially misleading statements or omissions in selling the Abacus 2007-AC1 CDO. On the key question of whether the CDO’s manager, ACA, was told that hedge fund Paulson was short the portfolio, he points out that the Paulson Credit Opportunities Fund’s strategy of shorting the RMBS market was known about at the time of the deal in April 2007. He says that this was the subject of reports available publicly at the time, but does not give any references for these reports.

He also says that Paulson and ACA had extensive contacts during the transaction, including a meeting in Jackson Hole in Wyoming where no Goldman representatives were present.

See also the 100416 SEC Goldman (PDF, 176.1 kb) against Goldman Sachs.