Goldman Sachs Group Inc's former vice president Fabrice Tourre was found liable for his part in the USD1 billion failed investment. This was after failure to persuade jurors through his defense of not being primarily responsible for the deal as he was only a junior employee of the fund.

Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer Tom Gorman said in an interview that Tourre's young age and being one of several Goldman employees is not a defense acceptable against charges filed on him. He added that Tourre was a paid specialist who works in a specific area asking people to invest billions of cash in a product that he incepted.

Tourre allegedly misled investors in the 2007 deal called Abacus. His lawyers portrayed Tourre as a young employee of the company who worked with numerous Goldman Sachs employees with the transaction.

The SEC filed charges on Tourre about his role in John Paulson's hedge fund, Paulson & Co. The hedge fund helped choose securities portfolio, then made a bet worth a billion of dollars that it would fail. Out of seven claims, Tourre was found guilty of six by a jury in Manhattan yesterday.