Resolution no. 20881

Order, pursuant to art. 7-octies, para. 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 website www.ainvestments.com and the web page www.lp.ainvestments.com

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 additions;

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

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from checks on the website www.ainvestments.com, it emerged that:

i. The www.ainvestments.com website, registered anonymously, is also available in Italian and has no mechanism in place to prevent the registration of Italian users;

ii. the website in question can also be accessed via the link www.lp.ainvestments.com included on the English 'AINVESTMENTS' Facebook page, which automatically redirects users to the website www.ainvestments.com;

iii. potential investors, subject to registering on the website www.ainvestments.com and opening an account via the registration procedure, are offered the opportunity to trade online through a platform called 'Metatrader4' in 'CFDs, indices, Forex, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, shares and bonds';

iv. in order to perform the trading transactions, a investment of money is required, to be paid into an account opened online; in particular, there are various types of account available, with different names, according to the minimum deposit to be made and the promised benefits, ('standard', 'premium', 'platinum' and 'VIP');

v. upon registration, users are redirected to the web page www.trade.ainvestments.com, where, by entering their credentials, they can access their account to make payments and operate on the aforementioned platform;

vi. at the bottom of each page of the website and in the 'About Us' section, the entities 'ESOS International Ltd', with registered address in the Marshall Islands, and its subsidiary 'Kadeky International S.R.O.', with its alleged registered address in the Czech Republic, are indicated as the entities to which the website and web pages are attributable.

HAVING CONSIDERED that the activity carried out via the said website and web pages qualifies as the provision of investment services as referred to in art. 1, para. 5 of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account against which purchase and/or sale orders for financial instruments can be issued;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the aforementioned operations performed via the website www.ainvestments.com and the web page www.lp.ainvestments.com are directed towards Italian investors, insofar as they are also available in Italian;

HAVING CONSIDERED that the entities indicated in the above-mentioned domains are not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as these companies are not registered in the 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 REGARD TO the fact that, according 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 therefore pursuant to this decree: a) make public, even by way of a precaution, the fact that the party is not authorised to perform the activity indicated in article 1, paragraph 5; b) order the party to cease the infringement';

HEREBY RESOLVES:

The order is issued to cease the infringement of art. 18 of Legislative Decree no. 58/98 perpetrated via the website www.ainvestments.com and the web page www.lp.ainvestments.com, consisting of the provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of those concerned 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 notification.

April 3^th, 2019

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona