Resolution no. 21566

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 https://it.cryptoengine.app

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 https://it.cryptoengine.app website, it emerged that:

i. the website is active and available in Italian;

ii. it promotes the possibility of “earning real profits in the following 24 hours", inviting interested users to register by entering their name,surname and e-mail address in a form;

iii. once you have completed the registration process started on the page https://it.cryptoengine.app, you are routed to the page https://invest-fd.io/finance, which allows you both to deposit money into the open trading account and access the trading platforms "MT4" and "Status Webtrader" hosted on the website https://investfd.io, referable to "Lengvin Partners LTD" ("InvestFeed");

iv. as for the website https://it.cryptoengine.app, it only mentions the trademark "Crypto Engine", without indicating any owner of the trademark itself.

WHEREAS the activity carried out by “Crypto Engine” through the website https://it.cryptoengine.app can be classed as the offer and provision of investment services as referred to in art. 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

WHEREAS, in this regard, through the website https://it.cryptoengine.app users are encouraged by "Crypto Engine", being promised numerous economic benefits, to open an account for tradingtransactions with "Lengvin Partners LTD" ("InvestFeed"), to whose website users are routed through a specific link, and this operation can be considered as a remote offer of investment services of third parties, an activity reserved for intermediaries authorised under art. 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance to provide the placement service referred to in art. 1, paragraph 5, letter c) and c-bis) of the same Consolidated Law on Finance;

WHEREAS the above described operation, carried out by “Crypto Engine” through the website https://it.cryptoengine.app, is still in progress and is addressed to the public of Italian investors as the website is available in Italian language;

WHEREAS "Crypto Engine" is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear 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 to licensed parties as referred to under 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 article 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 abuse' - Consob 'may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that the infringement cease';

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. 58/1998 carried out through the https://it.cryptoengine.app website, consisting in the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This resolution will be published in the Consob Bulletin.

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

29 October 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona