JURIST - Paper Chase: Italy court sentences former Fiat advisers

[JURIST] The Turin Court of Appeals [official website] in Italy on Thursday sentenced two former advisers to the Italian car company Fiat [corporate website] to one year and four months in prison for misleading the market in 2005 when the Agnelli family purchased the company. Franzo Grande Stevens, a former attorney for Fiat, and Gianluigi Gabetti, the former Agnelli family holding company executive, were each given suspended sentences [Reuters report], meaning that neither of them will actually spend time in jail. The men were also ordered to pay US$793,300 each in fines [NY Times report]. The decision by the court of appeals reversed the ruling by a lower court that the two men were not guilty of any wrongdoing.

In December 2009 the US Supreme Court [official website] dismissed a challenge [JURIST report] to the sale of Chrysler [corporate website] to Fiat. The decision came one day after the Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that the transaction between Chrsler and Fiat could proceed. The sale was challenged [JURIST report] by consumer groups and three Indiana pension construction funds, among others, on the grounds that the use of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) [materials] funds to finance the bankruptcy was unconstitutional.