The SEC case against Goldman's Fabrice Tourre, the proverbial "last man standing," is going to court as scheduled after Judge Barbara Jones denied Mr. Tourre's bid to delay depositions.  The SEC accuses him of misleading investors about the synthetic CDO, Abacus 2007-AC1 - a product linked to subprime mortgages. Specifically, he allegedly failed to tell investors that hedge fund Paulson & Co helped choose and bet against securities underlying Abacus.

Mr. Tourre's attorneys have argued it would be unfair to subject their client to depositions because they have yet to review 300,000 documents, and he has yet to receive documents from Germany's IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, an alleged victim of his supposed fraud.  He also sought to delay depositions until his motion to dismiss the SEC lawsuit was addressed.

Co-defendant, Goldman Sachs & Co. agreed in July to settle the case for $550 million, without admitting wrongdoing.  Tourre has also denied wrongdoing.  He's the only individual sued in the case.

The case is SEC v. Goldman Sachs & Co et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-03229.   [Reuters, 1/31]