Earlier today, a New York federal court ordered former Goldman Sachs Vice President Fabrice Tourre to pay $825,000 for violating federal securities laws and defrauding investors in connection with Goldman’s infamous Abacus derivatives deal with hedge fund manager John Paulson. Dennis Kelleher, President of Better Markets, a nonprofit organization that promotes the public interest in the financial markets, issued the following statement:

“Obtaining a big fine against one low level Goldman vice president, however much deserved, cannot hide the indefensible record of failure at the SEC and the Department of Justice to charge a single senior executive at any Wall Street bank for causing the worst financial crash since 1929 and the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Systemic recklessness, fraud and criminality on Wall Street were at the core of the crash and crisis, which didn’t happen because of one junior employee at one bank. History will judge prosecutors and regulators harshly for abdicating their duty to enforce the law without fear or favor on Wall Street as they do on Main Street.”