A federal judge agreed to give Goldman Sachs Group Inc more time to respond to a lawsuit filed by U.S. securities regulators accusing the Wall Street bank of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones on Monday approved an order that gives Goldman until July 19 to file its answer to the lawsuit, filed in April by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Goldman had been scheduled to file its initial response to the suit by today.

Lawyers for the SEC and Goldman both asked the judge to approve the extension, which is not uncommon in civil litigation.

The order signed by the judge noted that Goldman bond salesmen Fabrice Tourre, the lone individual defendant named in the suit, previously had been given until July 19 to file his answer to the SEC fraud charges.

The SEC contends that Goldman and Tourre misled institutional investors about some of the terms of a subprime mortgage-linked collateralized debt obligation called Abacus 2007.

(Reported by Matthew Goldstein; editing by John Wallace)

Goldman sachs