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Fabrice ‘Fabulous Fab’ Tourre defense rests, feels it holds all the cards

Ex-Goldman Sachs banker Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre must think he’s sitting pretty. His defense team didn’t call a single witness to combat SEC charges that he lied to investors in the Abacus deal.

Ex-Goldman Sachs banker Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre must think he’s sitting pretty. His defense team didn’t call a single witness to combat SEC charges that he lied to investors in the Abacus deal. (AP)

Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre must feel he has a winning hand.

That might explain why lawyers for the ex-Goldman Sachs banker rested yesterday without calling a single witness to testify, including hedge-fund honcho John Paulson, who played a key role in the case.

The move — after two weeks of testimony by witnesses for the Securities and Exchange Commission — suggested the defense team was feeling lucky enough to send the case to the jury.

“We’re feeling like we’re in a very strong position,” said one person familiar with the defense team.

In a twist, it was the SEC — not Tourre’s defense team — who called him to testify. It was a gamble that could backfire on the Wall Street watchdog, which is trying to land its first wrongdoer linked to the financial meltdown.

“We think that Tourre was credible and compelling on the stand,” said another source close to Tourre’s defense.

Tourre is facing a monetary penalty and a possible ban from working on Wall Street should he lose.

Both sides are set to put all the chips on the table today when they launch into their roughly 2 1/2 -hour closing arguments with the nine-member jury likely to start deliberating on Wednesday.

The SEC has alleged that the 34-year-old midlevel banker misled investors about the role of Paulson in a complex $1 billion subprime-mortgage deal known as Abacus.

Tourre — whose nickname, “Fabulous Fab,” emerged in an embarrassing email to his then-girlfriend — is accused of tricking investors into thinking Paulson was backing the deal.

In fact, Paulson & Co. made more than $1 billion betting against Abacus, a synthetic collateralized-debt obligation.

During the three-week civil trial, the government tried to portray Tourre as the person most responsible for communicating Paulson’s role to prospective investors.

The SEC called nearly a dozen witnesses to testify including Tourre. His three days on the stand were by far the highlight of an otherwise jargon-filled trial that lulled some jurors to sleep.

At least one white collar attorney thinks that Tourre’s team is right to be confident.

“I haven’t seen one single person stand up in front of the court and point the finger at Tourre and say that, he told me that Paulson was long and that’s why I invested,” said Stuart Slotnick, managing partner at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.

“In this environment, I wouldn’t be surprised if the jury thinks that this is an overzealous prosecution of a civil case,” he added.

Early in the case, Judge Katherine Forrest urged both sides to streamline their cases so as not to confuse the jury.

The SEC sued Tourre and Goldman in April 2010. Goldman settled the later that year, agreeing to pay a whopping $550 million without admitting or denying wrongdoing.