Grant Thornton has won the dismissal of a 10-year-old lawsuit that accused its audit team of helping enable theft that led to the 2003 collapse of Italian dairy giant Parmalat.
US district judge John Darrah adopted the 2009 findings of a Manhattan federal judge in ruling against Parmalat and Enrico Bondi, its foreign representative and former chief executive, Reuters reports.
Meanwhile, Manhattan judge, Lewis Kaplan, concurred with Grant Thornton and two affiliates that Parmalat was not excused from a legal doctrine that stops a company from recovering for its own fraud.
Darrah, who recently took over the case, rejected Bondi's effort to move it to Cook County Circuit Court, an Illinois state court.
'These cases have remained unresolved for nearly 10 years, and it is unlikely that a remand back to state court will result in more timely dispositions,' Darrah wrote. 'The entry of summary judgment in favour of defendants should be respected.'
A Grant Thornton spokesman said: 'We are very pleased with the decision, which adopts and reinforces the Southern District of New York court's determination that Parmalat and its representatives cannot sue based on their own wrongdoing.'
Back in 2009, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Grant Thornton, both former Parmalat auditors, agreed to pay $15m (£9m) to settle a class action lawsuit by US investors over their roles in the company's collapse in 2003.
Grant Thornton International handed over $6.5m. The case was brought by funds on behalf of thousands of investors who claimed they lost money from Parmalat's multi-million-dollar fraud.
Lead plaintiffs included Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, Cattolica Partecipazioni, Capital & Finance Asset Management, Société Moderne des Terrassements Parisiens and Solotrat.
Parmalat's collapse sparked litigation worldwide against dozens of banks, including Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc.
Deloitte agreed in January 2007 to pay $149m to settle with Parmalat itself. Parmalat has appealed against a judge's dismissal in September of its lawsuit against Grant Thornton.
The Milan-based company filed for insolvency protection in Italy in December 2003 after uncovering a $6bn hole in its balance sheet.
The company was restructured and relisted on the Milan stock exchange in 2005.