Saturday, April 24, 2010

Goldmans banker always asked: Where's the brothel?

A City banker who boasts of sleeping with prostitutes worked on the deal at the centre of the Goldman Sachs 'fraud' scandal.

Eton and Oxford-educated Tetsuya Ishikawa regularly travelled abroad and admitted: 'The first thing I asked on arriving was, where is the brothel?'

Mr Ishikawa - who wrote a novel called How I Caused The Credit Crunch - worked from the investment bank's London offices on the sub-prime mortgage fund set up by Fabrice 'Fabulous Fab' Tourre.

Tetsuya Ishikawa
Farbrice Tourre
Central players: Tetsuya Ishikawa, left, and Fabrice 'Fabulous Fab' Tourre


Mr Ishikawa, known as 'Tets' or 'Ishi,' was listed as one of two London salesmen for European investors to contact when the fund was marketed in 2007.

The Financial Services Authority began an investigation into the London arm of Goldman Sachs after the Wall Street giant and Mr Tourre were charged by U.S. watchdogs with a £ 650million fraud.

They allegedly sold toxic mortgage investments deliberately designed to fail in the American housing market crash.

The watchdog is expected to question Mr Ishikawa, 31, who was born in Japan but grew up in London.

He has admitted in interviews publicising his book that he slept with escorts and regularly visited Spearmint Rhino, the lapdancing club.

His book recounts tales of 'the drugs, prostitutes, strippers, booze and general excessive nightlife' of City bankers in the build-up to the financial crisis.

The lead character in the novel, Andrew Dover, lives in a world where whizkids have 'phat pads in Chelsea' and drive a Ferrari, Aston Martin or Lamborghini because 'Porsches were for the commoners'. Mr Ishikawa claims the book mirrors the six years he spent in the City at ABN Amro, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

LIke the fictional Dover, Mr Ishikawa dated a Brazilian lap dancer whom he then married.

He lives with his new wife Simone and their two young children.

Mr Ishikawa now works for City bond brokers Amias Berman & Co, who said he was on holiday and not available for comment. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by him.

Goldman Sachs insisted the firm 'would never intentionally mislead anyone' and earlier this week it said it had asked the FSA to strike Mr Tourre, 33, off its list of people who are fit to work in the City. He is currently on paid leave.

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