Resolution no. 20850

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 performed through the www.richmondfg.com website

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 June 7, 1974, and subsequent amendments and additions;

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

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the www.richmondfg.comm website, it emerged that:

i. the www.richmondfg.com website, registered by an unknown user, is in Italian;

ii. the potential investor, subject to registration on the said website and the opening of an account via a specific online form, has the opportunity to trade on the Forex market and in CFDs having indexes, commodities and shares as their underlying assets, through a MT4 platform;

iii. in order to carry out trading transactions, an investment of money is required, to be paid into an account opened online. In particular, the website offers various types of account, namely 'Micro', 'Mini', 'Silver', 'Gold', 'Diamond' and ' VIP', distinguished above all by the minimum deposit required and by the benefits paid to users;

iv. in the footer of the home page and in the ' Terms & Conditions' section the Elit Property Vision Ltd company, with alleged office in Bulgaria, is mentioned;

v. the www.richmondfg.com website and the services offered therein seem therefore to be attributable to the Elit Property Vision Ltd company, with alleged office in Bulgaria;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the activities performed though the www.richmondfg.com website qualify as the provision of investment services referred to in Art. 1, para. 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity to open a trading account against which they can issue purchase and/or sales orders of financial instruments;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the above described operations, carried out via the www.richmondfg.com website, are addressed to the Italian investing public, because the said website is available in Italian and has no blocking mechanism in place to prevent registration of Italian users;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the company mentioned on the said website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not registered on the dedicated register held by CONSOB pursuant to Art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the fact that the provision of investment services and activities is reserved for authorised entities as referred to under Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which, ' The professional provision of investment services and activities for the public is reserved for investment firms and banks';

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the operations in question qualify as the professional provision of investment services involving financial instruments to the Italian public, in infringement of Art. 18, para. 1, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING CONSIDERED that, pursuant to Art. 7-octies of the Consolidated Law on Finance - 'Powers to counteract abuse' - CONSOB ' may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities through the Internet without being qualified therefor pursuant to this decree: a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the circumstance that the party is not authorised to carry out the activity indicated by article 1, paragraph 5; b) order that the infringement cease';

HEREBY RESOLVES:

The order is issued to cease the infringement of Art .18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 perpetrated in part via www.richmondfg.com website, consisting of the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned and published in CONSOB's Bulletin.

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

March 13, 2019

THE DEPUTY CHAIRMAN
Anna Genovese