market selloff headline

market selloff headline

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Fabulist Fine

SDNY Judge Katherine Forrest imposed an $825K penalty yesterday on the “fabulous Fab” as a sanction for his role in pushing the built-to-fail Abacus MBS fund, which hedge fund Paulson (no affiliation with the Dartmouth man who brought us all TARP) shorted through strategic CDS and participated in the selection of the subprime securities that would inevitably implode.


Judge Forrest included a bit of a bench slap when imposing the fine, noting "Tourre's conduct spanned seven months, and involved many emails, meetings, and calls." She added for good measure, "He has shown no remorse or contrition." According to “Fab,” now counted among the newest Econ lecturers at the Univ. of Chicago, his penalty should have been around $65K; the SEC sought a $1.15M sanction, still well below his $1.58M 2007 bonus, the year Abacus was pushed on unsuspecting investors. Judge Forrest also forbid Tourre from seeking Goldman Sachs' reimbursement for the civil penalties.

For much more Abacus scandal analysis, read The Goldman Sachs Swap Shop by Ed Pekarek and Christopher Lufrano, or you can buy the book.


Update / errata:
My co-author Mr. Lufrano was kind enough to inform me expediently that the University of Chicago has since reversed course and Mr. Tourre is no longer assigned to teach as reported earlier.  According to the Chicago Maroon:

“'As preparations continue for the spring quarter, Fabrice Tourre will no longer be assigned as an instructor for Honors Elements of Economic Analysis in the College. Instead he will be able to fulfill the teaching requirements for his Ph.D. program through opportunities in his department’s graduate-level curriculum,' University spokesperson Jeremy Manier said in an e-mail" (emphasis added).