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Italy court finds former Fiat advisors guilty of misleading market

TURIN, Italy Feb 21 (Reuters) - An Italian appeals court has sentenced two former Fiat advisors to 1 year and 4 months in jail for misleading the market in a 2005 stock transaction that secured the Agnelli family's control of the automaker.

Thursday's decision by the Turin judges overturned a 2010 verdict by a lower court that had found the two advisors, lawyer Franzo Grande Stevens and former Agnelli family holding company executive Gianluigi Gabetti, not guilty.

The case dates back to 2005 when regulators asked an Agnelli holding company called IFIL to comment on rumours that it was buying Fiat shares ahead of a Fiat share issue to settle a convertible loan with its banks.

Both men told the court on Thursday they were not guilty. The court also ordered the pair to pay a fine of 600,000 euros each.