5:39 p.m. | Updated

MILAN — An Italian judge on Monday cleared Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank of charges that they engaged in market rigging by helping the dairy company Parmalat conceal the fraud that led to its collapse in 2003.

The banks, which all worked for Parmalat in the years before its bankruptcy, were also acquitted of accusations that they did not have appropriate internal systems that would have prevented their employees from carrying out the fraud.

Employees of the banks were also acquitted. The four banks had all denied wrongdoing.

Parmalat collapsed after it was revealed that the company’s debt was eight times as much as it had publicly stated and that sales and profit had been overstated for at least a decade.

The four banks were part of a large pool of financial institutions that Parmalat used to raise money and organize acquisitions that helped turn a provincial milk producer into a large multinational food company, with businesses in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Australia.

A much smaller Parmalat emerged from bankruptcy and was relisted on the Milan stock exchange in 2005.

Bank of America hailed the judge’s ruling, saying it confirmed that “not only was the claim without foundation, but Bank of America had appropriate organizational models in place” as required by Italian law.

Citigroup said that it had “maintained throughout that it was defrauded by Parmalat” and that the Milan court’s judgment confirmed “unequivocally that Citi and its employees did not have any involvement” in the affair. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank also said they were satisfied with the verdict.

Milan prosecutors had asked that each bank be fined 900,000 euros ($1.3 million) and that a total of 120.6 million euros be seized from the banks: 70 million euros from Citigroup, 30.7 million euros from Bank of America, 14 million euros from Deutsche Bank and 5.9 million euros from Morgan Stanley.

The prosecutors did not say whether they would appeal the verdict. The decision to appeal is usually made after the judges have published the reasoning behind their verdict, which must be done within 90 days of the ruling.

Considering the time and effort the prosecutors put into the case, it would be extremely surprising if they did not appeal, said a person involved in the trial who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case until it was officially closed.

The four banks are still on trial in Parma, where Parmalat is based, on charges of covering up the fraud that led to its bankruptcy. That trial is in its preliminary phase and is likely to last another two to three years.

In December, the Parma court sentenced Calisto Tanzi, Parmalat’s founder and chief executive at the time of the collapse, to 18 years in prison for his role in the company’s demise. Mr. Tanzi has appealed that ruling.

Two years ago, the Milan court sentenced Mr. Tanzi to 10 years in prison in another trial connected to Parmalat’s collapse. Mr. Tanzi lost the first appeal of that case and the second appeal could be decided in the next several months.