Resolution no. 23006

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 committed via the https://tretoro.co website

LA COMMISSIONE NAZIONALE PER LE SOCIETÀ E LA BORSA

HAVING REGARD to Law no. 216 of 7 June 1974, as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING REGARD to Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance"), as subsequently amended and supplemented;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, from the checks carried out, it emerged that:

i. the website https://tretoro.co, which is active, registered by an anonymous user, also available in Italian, offers, subject to opening an account, the opportunity to trade in shares, ETFs, options and mutual funds through a trading platform called "FIT-Sistema di Trading FINA", and offers advisory services on investment and asset management;

ii. with regard to the legal entity to which the website https://tretoro.co refers, it should be noted that in the header of the pages of the website there is a generic reference to "TRETORO", at the bottom of the pages of the website there are generically indicated the legal entities "Tretoro Capital Corporation", "Tretoro Capital Advisors Corporation " and, in the "Licence" section, there is the name "Toro LTD"; in the same section, there are also the email addresses investorrelations@fina.com, publicrelations@fina.com, businesspla@fina.com, each dedicated to a different service;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the https://tretoro.co website may be considered as the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that the aforesaid domain offers users both the opportunity of opening a trading account against which orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments may be issued and the possibility to use the investment advice and asset management services;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://tretoro.co, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar as the website is active and can also be consulted in Italian and a report has also been received from an Italian person who complained, inter alia, that they were unable to get their money back;

WHEREAS such activity carried out through the https://tretoro.co website cannot be attributed to any entity that is authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 commercial 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 through the Internet without being qualified pursuant to this decree: […] b) order that such 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://tretoro.co website, consisting in the offering and provision of 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.

14 February 2024

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona