A judge for the criminal division of the Tribunal of Trani [official website, in Italian] on Thursday acquitted [Corriere report, in Italian] Standard & Poor (S&P) [official website] officials over market manipulation charges. The credit rating agency was accused of contributing to the economic woes suffered by the country by cutting ratings in 2011 and 2012, and the state was seeking jail terms of 2-3 years and about 5 million euros in fines. Prosecutors in the southern Italian city argued [Reuters report] that S&P’s reports and reviews were mishandled during the economic crisis, resulting in losses to the stock market. S&P continued to dispute the merit of the allegations, and praised the decision as being, “the justice they deserve.” The court reasoning for its decision should be available within 90 days, at which time the prosecutors will determine if they will appeal the courts decision.

The case against S&P in Italy has proceeded at a slow pace. The initial charges were filed [JURIST report] in 2012. This is not the only time that S&P found themselves being sued by a state government. In March 2015, after two years of litigation, the Department of Justice reached a settlement [JURIST report] agreement with S&P for a sum of $1.375 billion to close a series of legal actions. The effects credit rating agencies have on national and international economies cannot be understated, leaving many government officials critical over ratings submitted by these agencies. When S&P downgraded the American credit rating in 2011, they were met by harsh criticism by American policy makers and the rating methodologies of the agency were questioned [JURIST op-ed].