Author of ‘bare-all’ book on crisis worked for Goldman Sachs

An Eton and Oxford educated banker who wrote a supposedly fictional book about the cash and sexual excesses of London financiers has emerged as one of the salesmen who worked on the deal at the heart of the Goldman Sachs scandal.

Tetsuya Ishikawa, author of the book How I caused the credit crunch, worked for the unit of Goldman Sachs that sold the financial product at the heart of US fraud allegations against the bank. 'Tets' Ishikawa's name appears on the preliminary term sheet for the Abacus 2007-AC1 deal, a collateralised debt obligation (CDO) the US Securities and Exchange Commission accuses the bank of using to commit fraud.

Ishikawa is Japanese by birth but grew up in London and was educated at the elite Eton school and Oxford University. He left Goldman in 2007 and then worked for Morgan Stanley, structuring, syndicating and selling credit derivatives to investors.

His name and London phone number are on the Abacus term sheet as one of six people in the "Global Syndicate" group, part of a wider contact list that also includes Fabrice Tourre, the 31-year old Frenchman who has been charged with fraud by the SEC. Ishikawa, 31, and colleague Mitch Resnick formed the London-based "syndication" team, which sold the $2-billion Abacus 2007-AC1 CDOs across Europe.

Goldman is vigorously defending itself against the US accusations, contesting the idea that it was selling the CDO in the knowledge it would collapse so as to allow hedge fund manager John Paulson to bet against it.

Tourre and Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman chief executive, are expected to testify about the deal before Congress next week.