Prosecutors in the Puglia city
of Trani indicted six managers and analysts from Standard &
Poor's and two analysts from Fitch ratings agencies Tuesday on
charges of deliberately misleading financial markets with
reports on Italy.
The two agencies have also been indicted in the lawsuit
stemming from 2011-2012 reports questioning Italy's
creditworthiness and lowering its rating, sources said.
The reports in question were issued between May 2011 and
January 2012, at the height of the eurozone debt crisis when
Italy looked to be in danger of a Greek-style financial
meltdown.
They included a report issued on January 13, 2012, in which
the United States-based S&P downgraded Italy's sovereign debt
rating by two notches from A to BBB+.
That same day, S&P also lowered its rating on several
Italian banks in findings that another employee at the ratings
agency disagreed with in an email, seized by authorities and
given to Trani prosecutor Michele Ruggiero.
The defendants are charged with aggravated market
manipulation to the detriment of a sovereign State and causing
massive economic damage.
Fitch denied the charges, echoed by S&P who called them
"completely unfounded".
Complaints against S&P were initially raised by a group of
10 consumers and the Italian consumer association Adusbef, now a
civil plaintiff in the suit.
Prosecutors say at least four ratings reports were
involved and allege these were deliberately aimed at distorting
market opinion on the risks involved in buying Italian bonds as
well as the viability of Italian efforts to deal with the crisis
that hit sovereign bond markets extremely hard.
Ratings by the influential international agencies have a
significant effect on the cost of borrowing for businesses and
government, and also have an impact on the size of government
deficit and debt.
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