Resolution no. 22526

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 https://honestcapital.pro website and the https://webtrader.c-invest.co webpage

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. the https://honestcapital.pro website, which is active, registered by the company Coconors and Partners LLC and also available in Italian, offers the opportunity, subject to prior opening of an account, to trade CFDs on underlying currencies, indices, shares, commodities via a dedicated platform;

ii. to carry out trading transactions, registration on the https://honestcapital.pro website and the opening of an account is required; the website contains four types of account called "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum" and "PRO";

iii. after registration, the user gains access to the reserved area of the website where, among other things, there is a hyperlink called webtrader that directs the user to the trading platform available at the separate web address https://webtrader.c-invest.co;

iv. as for traceability, the website's footer states “This site is owned and operated by Coconors and Partners LLC" which has its registered office in St. Vincent and the Grenadines;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://honestcapital.pro website and https://webtrader.c-invest.cowebpage constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, insofar as users are offered the opportunity through the aforementioned domains to open a trading account on which it is possible to issue purchase and/or sale orders relating to financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out via the https://honestcapital.pro website and https://webtrader.c-invest.co webpage, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the https://honestcapital.pro website may also be consulted in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration by users attempting to register with the aforesaid website from Italy/Italian IP addresses; in addition, there have been reports regarding the transactions in question of cold calls being made to retail investors in Italy.

WHEREAS the company Coconors and Partners LLC, with its registered office in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which is mentioned on the 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 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 unauthorised provision of investment services” - Consob “may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over 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. 58/98 carried out through the https://honestcapital.pro website and https://webtrader.c-invest.co webpage, constituted by the offer and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the all 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.

30 November 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona