Top managers at the financial rating agencies Standard and Poor's and Fitch were acquitted Thursday of market manipulation charges brought after they cut Italy's credit ratings in 2011 and 2012.
A court in the southern Italian city of Trani cleared former S&P president Deven Sharma as well as four employees at the US agency after the prosecution had called for prison sentences of up to three years.
Fitch's head of operations David Michael Willmoth Riley, who risked nine months in prison, was also acquitted.
The two ratings agencies, whose probe the creditworthiness of borrowers, themselves came under the spotlight when they cut their ratings on Italy's sovereign debt, citing instability of the Berlusconi government of the day, and slow implementation of an austerity programme.
S&P lowered its rating by two notches in January 2012 to BBB+, having already cut it the previous September. The same month, Fitch also lowered its rating for Italy.
Several Italian consumer associations had come forward as plaintiffs. S&P had rejected the charges as "completely unfounded".
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