Former Goldman Trader Tourre Says He Will Not Appeal

Fabrice Tourre, the former Goldman Sachs trader found liable for defrauding investors in a soured mortgage deal, will not appeal his case to a higher court.

The decision, which Mr. Tourre announced in a statement on Tuesday, closes the book on one of the biggest cases to stem from the 2008 financial crisis. Mr. Tourre, who was charged in a civil case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, had became both a symbol and a scapegoat of the crisis.

Mr. Tourre, a 35-year-old Frenchman who in recent years abandoned his Wall Street career for a life in academia, attributed his decision to a need for closure. After four years of fighting the S.E.C., he said that it was time to move on.

Mr. Tourre, who made millions during his Goldman tenure, has already paid the S.E.C. $825,000 in penalties and other costs. And an appeal could have complicated, or at least distracted from, his pursuit of a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago.

“After careful consideration, I have decided not to pursue a lengthy appeal process which, if successful, would lead to a retrial,” Mr. Tourre said in the statement. “While my lawyers have advised me there are strong grounds to appeal, I prefer to move forward with my education and close this difficult chapter of my life.”

Mr. Tourre, who would have most likely faced a retrial before the same judge who presided over his trial, Katherine B. Forrest of Federal District Court in Manhattan, added that he looked “forward to finishing my Ph.D. in Economics and to making meaningful contributions to my field.”

When a federal jury in Manhattan found him liable for fraud last summer, the case handed the S.E.C. its first major courtroom victory in a crisis-era case. The victory appeared to embolden the S.E.C., whose chairwoman, Mary Jo White, cited the case as “the latest example” demonstrating the agency’s track record for “winning when we go to trial.”

The S.E.C.’s case centered on a mortgage deal that Goldman created with the help of a hedge fund, Paulson & Company. Mr. Tourre and Goldman, the S.E.C. argued, failed to disclose to investors that the hedge fund was separately betting the deal would fail. When the deal unraveled, investors suffered about $1 billion in losses.

Mr. Tourre’s lawyers countered that investors in the deal were sophisticated banks that knew the risks and understood the mechanics of the deal. The mortgage deal, the lawyers at Allen & Overy argued, had to have one party betting it would fail and another betting it would rise.

The lawyers also criticized the S.E.C. for making an example of their client. Mr. Tourre — one of several thousand midlevel employees at the time he helped devise the mortgage deal — was hardly the face of the crisis. Yet he was the only person at Goldman charged in the case.

Goldman settled the accusations in 2010, paying $550 million.