Resolution no. 22029

Order, pursuant to article 7-octies, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") to cease the infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance carried out through the website www.profitassist.co

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA
[THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR COMPANIES AND THE STOCK EXCHANGE]

HAVING REGARD TO Law no. 216 of 7 June 1974 and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the www.profitassist.co website, which is active and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility of trading CFDs on "Forex, shares, futures, indices and commodities";

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the www.profitassist.co website, through a procedure that is also available for Italian users

and open a trading account and deposit relevant funds;

iii. three types of account are mentioned on the website www.profitassist.co, named "Test", "Premium" and "Vip", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iv. at the bottom of the homepage of the www.profitassist.co website it states that the website "is owned and operated by Seabreeze Partners Ltd" with its registered address in the Commonwealth of Dominica;

v. the "Contacts" section of the www.profitassist.co website indicates the email addresses compliance.en@profitassist.io; compliance.de@profitassist.io and compliance.ru@profitassist.io.

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 21834 of 5 May 2021, whereby the company Seabreeze Partners Ltd was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate www.profitassist.io website and the relevant webtrader.profitassist.cc web page;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the www.profitassist.co website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services, pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through the aforesaid domain to open a trading account where they can place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS such transactions, carried out through the www.profitassist.co website, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors, given that the www.profitassist.co website is also available in Italian, and moreover there have been reports of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the www.profitassist.co website cannot be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public: specifically the company Seabreeze Partners Ltd, with its registered address in the Commonwealth of Dominica as mentioned on the www.profitassist.co website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in the register maintained by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant authorisation to provide investment services and activities as per article 18, paragraph 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which "The professional provision of investment services and activities to the public is reserved to Italian investment firms, EU investment firms, Italian banks, EU banks and non-EU firms";

HAVING ESTABLISHED, therefore, that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services to the Italian public, in infringement of art. 18, paragraph 1 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that, according to the provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract abusive practices" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the infringement";

CONSIDERING it therefore necessary, in the light of the foregoing, to adopt this Resolution immediately for reasons of urgency;

RESOLVES:

To order the cessation of the infringement of article 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 carried out through the www.profitassist.co website, consisting in the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the concerned parties and published in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days of the date of service.

6 October 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona