By Nate Raymond and Katya Wachtel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Testimony ended Monday in the civil fraud case of Fabrice Tourre, with lawyers for former Goldman Sachs trader not calling any witnesses before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case goes to a Manhattan federal jury.
Tourre's lawyers had been expected to call witnesses including hedge fund billionaire John Paulson to testify on his behalf.
Instead, his lawyers asked the presiding judge to take the case away from the jury and rule in Tourre's favor, which, as expected, she rejected.
"There is a lot of evidence the jury is entitled to weigh," U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said.
Closing arguments will begin on Tuesday morning, and Forrest said jury deliberations may begin on Wednesday.
The SEC accused Tourre of not disclosing to investors that Paulson's hedge fund firm, Paulson & Co Inc, selected mortgage securities tied to a 2007 deal called Abacus 2007-AC1 and planned to bet against it.
The SEC also said Tourre misled ACA Capital Holdings Inc, the company brought in to select assets linked to Abacus, into believing Paulson would be an equity investor in the $2 billion synthetic collateralized debt obligation offering.
Investors in Abacus lost about $1 billion, while Paulson made about that same amount betting against it.
Tourre has denied wrongdoing. Goldman Sachs Group Inc, originally a co-defendant, agreed in 2010 to settle with the SEC for $550 million without admitting wrongdoing.
The SEC rested its case Monday after playing a video deposition of Michael Nartey, a former Goldman employee in London who marketed Abacus notes to IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, one of the investors the SEC says was burned by the deal.
In total, the SEC introduced testimony from 11 witnesses who appeared live or gave depositions.
Tourre testified for three days. While his lawyers did not call any other witnesses, eight the SEC called were on Tourre's witness list too.
Jurors may consider Tourre's decision not to call other witnesses a plus for the defense, said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at McCarter & English.
"It's a sign that the defense believes that the SEC has not met its burden of proof," he said.
Paulson at the time of the Abacus deal was engaged in a broader bet against the U.S. housing market in 2007. The bet earned him Wall Street fame and billions of dollars.
As recently as July 19, Tourre's defense team had said it planned to call Paulson. Testimony had been expected to continue through at least much of this week.
The case is SEC v. Tourre, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-03229.
(Reporting By Katya Wachtel and Nate Raymond; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Steve Orlofsky)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paulson-not-testify-tourre-trial-143717471.html
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This morning, PandoDaily reported that Los Angeles-based eCommerce startup, BeachMint, had finally tanked after a long, “slow unraveling.” The problem, however, is that this doesn’t exactly mesh with reality. The reporter, Michael Carney, says that “multiple sources” informed him that the startup’s board had essentially fired CEO Josh Berman and President Diego Berdakin, and, on top of that, had asked them to return their remaining $20 million (of the $73.5 million total) to their investors. Were that the case, it would be a clear indication of BeachMint’s impending demise. However, TechCrunch has since spoken with Berdakin, Berman, NEA General Partner and BeachMint investor and board member Pete Sonsini and JewelMint Product Lead David Oh, who tell us that the reports of the company’s death have been greatly exaggerated. In a series of emails and conversations, the founders reported that, in fact, Berdakin and Berman remain 100 “percent committed to and focused on BeachMint” and at no time have been asked to step down by the company’s board of directors. Nor were they asked to return any of the money they’d raised. Sonsini says that the board is “completely behind the founders” and NEA, which is the largest stakeholder in BeachMint, has invested in each of the startup’s three financing rounds because the firm believes in the founders’ vision. Even if actualization of that roadmap takes time. So, in short: Everyone we’ve talked to at BeachMint says that these reports are completely untrue. In its report, Pando essentially speculates that BeachMint’s lack of traction and burn rate have forced the company into an overhaul reminiscent of the one that recently took place at fellow Los Angeles startup, Viddy, in which it recapitalized and gave back $18 million in funding to investors and reshuffled its board. The BeachMint President tells us, however, that the company has been laser-focused on limiting its burn rate, still has “north of the $20 million [in capital] that was reported” left in the bank and has plenty of runway left. If there is any truth to the story, Sonsini says, it’s that the company has been talking to strategic partners about fundraising. Whether that’s smart or not, well, the truth would appear to lie in the middle. In the big picture, subscription commerce is beginning to enter a period of consolidation similar to the one that the Daily Deal space went through after its gold rush. As
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