A French court on Thursday cleared BPCE bank chairman François Perol of wrongdoing in a conflict of interest case over his previous role as a presidential adviser on banking, reports Reuters.
The court acquitted him of a charge of illegal conflict of interest, but the prosecutors' office said afterwards that they would appeal.
Prosecutors had alleged there was a conflict of interest between his 2009 appointment as head of France's second-biggest retail bank and his position advising Nicolas Sarkozy, who was president at the time.
French law bans public officials from working for companies over which they have had direct authority in the previous three years.
Prosecutors, who took up the case following a complaint from unions, had been seeking a two-year suspended sentence, a 30,000 euro ($33,759) fine and a ban on Perol holding public office.
The verdict lifts a cloud of uncertainty over BPCE and its 108,000 employees. There was no obvious successor for Perol, whose mandate runs to May 2017, had a guilt verdict forced him to step down.