Resolution no. 22366

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://aceinvest.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 24th February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

i. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the https://aceinvest.co website, which is active and registered anonymously, subject to prior opening of an account via the registration process, which is also available to Italian users, to trade CFDs having currencies, indices, shares, commodities and cryptocurrencies as their underlying assets;

ii. in order to perform such trading operations, users must deposit funds onto the account opened online; specifically, three types of account are offered on the https://aceinvest.co website, referred to as "Cent", "Pro Trader" and "Prime";

iii. as to the traceability of the https://aceinvest.co website, the company Eudaimon Consulting LLC with its registered office at Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is indicated at the foot of its home page;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22260 of 9 March 2022, whereby Eudaimon Consulting LLC was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate https://aceinvesting.io and https://tradingtech.io websites;

WHEREAS the https://aceinvest.co website replicates the content and graphic format of said https://aceinvesting.io and https://tradingtech.io websites;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://aceinvest.co website is deemed to constitute the provision of investment services as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as clients are offered the opportunity of opening a trading account and issuing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://aceinvest.co, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, since there have been reports of cold calling retail investors in Italy;

WHEREAS the company Tetris Group Ltd mentioned on the https://aceinvest.co website is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, insofar as it is not listed in the register kept by Consob pursuant to article 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence 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 provisions of article 7-octies, letter b) of the Consolidated Law on Finance - "Powers to counteract unauthorised activity"- pursuant to which 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 performed through the website https://aceinvest.co, consisting in offering and providing 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.

16 June 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona