This does not mean that they will not affect his reputation

If he was looking for a Publisher, "fabulous fab" would probably not too hard to find. His shrewd emails, iconoclasts and devastating (especially for his employer), have already been around the world for two days. For better or for worse, the young French trader of thirty-one years (twenty-eight at the time of the facts) became, well despite himself, the expiatory antihero of the "saga of the Abacus CDO" that threatens to permanently destabilize the most iconic Wall Street firm. On the eve of his hearing, in Washington, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations - the commission of inquiry of the Senate created by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1948-a unveiled a new round of emails to the pest impact, including the "gentle words" of the trader to his companion, Marine Serres, seized by the SEC on the computers of Goldman Sachs.

Constraint and forced the New York Bank downplayed the impact of these messages "unfortunate and embarrassing" while continuing to affirm that the employee has done nothing illegal. This does not mean that they will not affect his reputation.

"In any event, I don't feel too guilty, the real purpose of my job is to make more efficient capital markets and to provide end to American consumers in the most effective ways to borrow and to fund, so my job is dignified modesty, nobility and ethics;" crazy as I am good for convince me myself! "confessait Fabrice Tourre to her friend to heart on January 23, 2007.

"Widows and Belgian orphans."

The message says a lot about the State of mind, obviously tortured, the young centralien, former student of Louis-le-Grand, which ever afterwards did not necessarily understand itself "all the implications of these monstrosities" created by Goldman Sachs and the hedge fund Paulson & Co in the area of derivatives: CDOS synthetic ("collateralized debt obligations") or CDS (credit default swaps"),"financial weapons of mass destruction. "in the words of Warren Buffett, recently repeated by Barack Obama in his speech of April 22.

Signs of some insight and a good dose of auto-ironie: in another e-mail dated January 29, 2007, Fabrice Tourre says watching the fall of the reference of "subprime" obligations ABX index, created in 2006, a little "as Frankenstein is returning against its inventor". Worse, he described himself this index as "a product highly theoretical, absolutely conceptual and intellectual masturbation that no one knows"pricer"determine the price, Editor's note". A few months later, on June 13, 2007, it boasts still have "managed to sell Abacus obligations to widows and orphans in the airport, definitely these Belgians love these synthetic securities..."

Doubt remains now

Even if "fabulous fab" emails are not necessarily enough teams to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to prove the existence of a fraud in the construction of CDOS, they are highly indicative of a State of mind of irresponsibility that raises serious questions. "There is no doubt that synthetic (to differentiate CDO) CDO, which are to organise a bet both sides without underlying capital, were designed as pure speculation without any public utility instruments", summarizes the financial Antoine Bernheim (homonym of the President of Generali), founder of Dome Capital and veteran of the alternative management in New York.

Even if Goldman Sachs defends itself of having knowingly gambled on these "toxic" at the expense of its own investor clients, doubt now remains on its management of the potential conflicts of interest within the Bank. For many observers, the antics of "fabulous fab" argue at least for the adoption of the "Volcker rule" on the clarification of the activities of investment banks and the ban could be imposed on them of control of "hedge funds".