Prior to starting my graduate studies at the University of Chicago, I was an employee of Goldman Sachs from July 2001 until I resigned to begin my doctorate in September 2011. In April 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil law suit against Goldman Sachs and against me, for allegedly making materially misleading statements and omissions in connection with a synthetic CDO transaction named ABACUS 2007-AC1, a complex financial product sold to two large institutional investors in 2007. While Goldman Sachs decided in July 2010 to settle those charges by neither admitting nor denying wrongdoing, I declined a similar offer to settle and instead continued to dispute those claims. In August 2013, after a three-week civil trial, I was found liable by a jury, and was ordered to pay approximately $850,000, consisting of a combination of a fine, disgorgements and prejudgment interest. I have fully paid these penalties and there is no other legal consequence to this verdict. In June 2014, while my lawyers assured me that there were strong grounds on which to appeal, I decided not to pursue a lengthy appeal process which, if successful, would have led to a retrial of the entire case. Instead, I decided to move forward, close this difficult chapter of my life, and fully focus on my academic work, with the ultimate goal to make meaningful contributions to my field.