Shipyard boss Antonio Palumbo has been acquitted of waste dumping in Italy, two years after receiving a six-year jail sentence.
Palumbo Group said the Court of Appeal in Messina annulled the previous judgement in a lower Messina court.
Convictions for conspiracy, illegal waste trade and environmental damage at the construction site in Messina have been quashed. The full judgement will not be available for three months.
The Naples businessman was found to have committed no felony, Palumbo Group said.
Sanctions against the company itself have also been lifted, the group added.
Palumbo heads a group with revenue of €200m ($232m) and employing 1,500 people.
He was defended by lawyers Giro Sepe and Giulia Bongiorno, who expressed great satisfaction with the verdict which "finally re-established the truth about the bitter story that upset his personal and entrepreneurial life," the company said.
Son and five others sentenced
Palumbo and his son Raffaele were sentenced to six years in prison in the Sicilian case.
The pair and five other men were found guilty of facilitating illegal dumping between 2011 and 2013, which they denied.
"It's hard to understand what prompted this sentence," Palumbo's lawyers said at the time, describing it as "objectively unacceptable."
Palumbo has consistently maintained that the case was politically motivated.
In 2011, forestry department officials matched dumped waste samples to ship blasting materials at Palumbo’s Messina facility.
The Messina court also found the companies Palumbo Spa, La Futura Sud and Stabia Yachting & Coating guilty in 2019.
Palumbo Group told TradeWinds that the managing director of the Messina yard at the time, a Mr Costa, was also acquitted along with Antonio Palumbo.
"They proved in court that there was no illegal activity in the matter from their side, as the two key members of the management of the yard at that time," a spokesman said.
Palumbo Spa and Stabia Yachting & Coating were also acquitted from all charges, he added.
