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Members of a Senate Subcommittee grilled executives from Goldman Sachs yesterday attempting to finish up an investigation of the investment giant that has lasted more than a year. Both current and former executives were questioned for over three hours about the ethics and legality of their actions which included knowingly selling faulty mortgage-backed securities to customers. Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein testified for the first time since the investigation began, in the hearing headed by Senator Carl Levin for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Meanwhile, the company was sued earlier this month by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud. That civil case is centered on a young bond trader named Fabrice Tourre whose emails to his girlfriend sent from his company account were released by Goldman Sachs and reveal that he was well aware of the impending subprime mortgage crash. Tourre sold securities backed by those mortgages aggressively. The emails from Tourre are among the approximately 2 million internal emails released recently by Goldman to members of the sub-committee. Fabrice Tourre also testified at the hearing, categorically denying any wrong-doing on his part in the SEC probe. <\/p>\n