A U.S. federal appeals court threw out a mortgage fraud conviction Monday against Bank of America and dismissed a $1.2 billion fine against the country's second-biggest bank.
The three-judge panel in New York ruled there was not enough evidence for a jury to find the bank liable at a 2013 trial.
The judges said U.S. prosecutors failed to prove that Bank of America's Countrywide Financial division purposely set out to sell fraudulent mortgages.
A Bank of America spokesman says the bank is pleased by the appeals court ruling. The U.S. Attorney's office in New York, which prosecuted the case, had no comment.
The Justice Department charged Countrywide of purposely selling the government-backed mortgage providers thousands of bad loans that could never be paid back.
Such bad loans helped bring on the global financial collapse and worldwide recession in 2008.
