The trial of former Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre was about "Wall Street greed," a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said as the trial began on Monday. The SEC accuses Tourre of misleading investors in a mortgage investment called Abacus 2007-AC1 by not telling them that a hedge fund was involved in selecting the underlying assets and betting against it. Matthew Martens, a lawyer for the SEC, told the jury the deal Tourre put together was "secretly designed to maximize the potential it would fail" to the benefit of the hedge fund, which made about $1 billion. "In the end, Wall Street greed drove Mr. Tourre to lie and deceive," Martens said. But Pamela Chepiga, a lawyer for Tourre, countered that the SEC was trying to turn her client into a "scapegoat." "This is not a case about whether you approve or disapprove of Wall Street," she said. The trial, scheduled to last three weeks, stems from a lawsuit the SEC filed against Goldman Sachs Group
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