Richard Drew/AP
A federal jury found former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre liable on six counts of civil securities fraud, the first major courtroom victory for the SEC in the case. The SEC argued that Tourre and Goldman sold investors a mortgage security without telling them that the hedge fund Paulson & Company, which helped put the deal together, was also betting it would fail. Among other pieces of evidence, the SEC used letters from Tourre to his girlfriend in which he jokes about selling toxic real estate bonds to “widows and orphans.” Tourre could be fined $5,000 to $130,000 for each violation and could be barred from the securities industry. Critics have complained that the SEC is going after a midlevel Goldman employee instead of executives at the top.