Il Court of Trani acquitted 5 analysts and managers of market manipulation Standard & Poor's and the rating company itself. The prosecution had asked for a two-year sentence for Deven Sharma, at the material time the world president of S&P; at 3 years each for Yann Le Pallec, responsible for Europe, and for sovereign debt analysts Eileen Zhang, Franklin Crawford Gill and Moritz Kraemer. S&P was asked to be sentenced to a fine of 4,6 million.
The investigation concerned the downgrading of two steps in Italy's rating that the rating agencies decided between 2011 and 2012. A cut which, according to the indictment, would have caused "a destabilization of the image, prestige and credit credit balances of Italy on the national and international financial markets”, a depreciation of government bonds and a weakening of the euro.
