Who: Fabrice Tourre, former executive director of Goldman Sachs Structured Products Group Trading

How he fiercely influenced finance: The former Goldman VP is the only individual charged by the SEC in its ABACUS civil suit against Goldman Sachs. The now-infamous Tourre trial may well define the financial crisis, notes FierceFinance.

As a trader, "Fab" Tourre structured the transaction, prepared the marketing materials and communicated directly with investors. The SEC alleges he also was well aware of Needs first namePaulson's undisclosed role in the Abacus deal. Tourre, on leave from Goldman, has denied all SEC allegations. Although Goldman is keeping tabs on Tourre's defense, he essentially is up against the SEC without the firm's help, notes the Wall Street Journal.

The ill-fated synthetic CDO at the root of Tourre's charges inflated the credit bubble, leaving even more losses when it popped, structured-finance experts and investors told MarketWatch

The SEC's suit against Tourre highlights a broad problem within structured finance--the business of packaging assets and selling or securitizing them, co-founder of R&R Consulting Sylvain Raynes told MarketWatch.

What's next: The enforcement action against Tourre and Goldman prompted regulators to question whether the practices that the SEC alleged were common across many CDOs. The media has predicted a wave of similar suitsTHIS LINK DOES NOT WORK by investors who also lost money in the sub-prime CDO market.

As for Tourre, a judge recently rejected his bid to throw out the SEC suit, so the trial will likely to go on as planned.