Tourre regrets personal emails about Goldman

Fabrice Tourre, the sole Goldman Sachs executive named in an SEC fraud case against the bank, told lawmakers a part of a Senate investigation committee that he regretted sending personal emails that predicted the collapse of mortgage-backed securities he managed. 

"I regret those emails," he told the committee. "They reflect very badly on the firm and on myself. And I wish I hadn't sent them." 

In private emails from Tourre and released by Goldman Sachs, he said "the entire system is about to crumble at any moment" and that decision makers at the firm were unaware of the "monstrosities" they created by transforming subprime loans into investment vehicles. The "business is totally dead and the poor little subprime borrowers will not last so long," he wrote on Mar. 7, 2007. "I do not intend to wait for the complete explosion of the industry and the beginning of distressed trading, I think there might be more interesting things to do in Europe."

Tourre and 6 other Goldman executives are testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations about their role in selling mortgage-backed securities to investors while making billions by betting against the very same investment.