My email was just silly and romantic, 'Fab' Tourre tells court

The former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre last night declared in court that the email in which he described himself to his girlfriend as "fabulous Fab" was merely "silly" and "romantic", rather than being evidence of wrongdoing.

Mr Tourre was testifying in the New York civil court case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleges that he misled investors in an investment product that lost investors $1bn when the housing market in the United States crashed.

In the email, he described himself as the sole survivor of an over-indebted market collapsing like a building, "standing in the middle of all these complex, highly levered, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all the implications of those monstrosities!!!"

The SEC's lawyer said the email showed that Mr Tourre knew that what he was doing was wrong. But Pamela Chepiga, for the defence, said it was an "old-fashioned love letter". "What this email expresses is the self-doubt of a young man, about whom there is nothing fabulous, struggling in a financial world that is uncertain and going through uncertain times."

The case continues.