Tourre: I'm not guilty

Fabrice Tourre, the sole Goldman Sachs executive named by the SEC for defrauding investors, denied any involvement in misleading investors on the soundness of mortgage-backed securities that initially merited high returns, but eventually turned toxic. 

"I deny -- categorically -- the SEC's allegation," he said in testimony before the Senate Investigation Committee. "And I will defend myself in court against this false claim."

Tourre is 1 of 7 Goldman executives appearing before the investigations committee headed by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

Levin argues the investment bank misled investors on mortgage-backed securities while it made billions in betting against the very same investments.

Tourre countered, saying the bank did not design the security to ultimately fail so the firm could reap billions in the process. 

"Goldman Sachs also had no economic motive to design the [investment] transaction to fail," he said. "Quite the contrary, we held long exposure in the transaction... When the security [tool] declined in value, we lost money too. Goldman Sachs' overall losses in connection with the transaction exceeded $100 million, including $83 million with respect to the retained long position."