Resolution no. 23157

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 via the website https://levictousltd.co and its page https://client.levictousltd.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, 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 checks on the web, it emerged that:

i. the website https://levictousltd.co, which is active, registered anonymously and also available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility to trade forex instruments and CFDs relating to commodities, shares and digital currencies;

ii. in order to carry out such trading transactions, users must register with the website https://levictousltd.co and open a trading account; specifically, five types of account are available, known as "Standard", "Silver", "Gold", "Platinum " and "VIP", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits promised;

iii. the reserved area of the website, includes an additional page https://client.levictousltd.co available in Italian, where there are specific features, including the one dedicated to depositing money on the trading account;

iv. the website https://levictousltd.co contains generic references to "LevictousLTD" as well as the email address "support@levictousltd.co".

HAVING REGARD TO Resolution no. 23088 of 24 April 2024, whereby an order was issued to cease the infringement of Article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the specific website https://levictousltd. com and the relevant https://client.levictousltd.com web page;

WHEREAS the website https://levictousltd.co has a domain that is partially superimposable to the domain of the website https://levictousltd.com, as well as similar content and graphic format;

WHEREAS the activity carried out via the website https://levictousltd.co and the related webpage https://client.levictousltd.co constitutes the provision of investment services, as referred to in Article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, since users are offered the opportunity via the aforementioned domains to open a trading account and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out via the website https://levictousltd.co and its page https://client.levictousltd.co are still ongoing and aimed at Italian investors, given that said website is available in Italian, there have been reports of interaction between operators on thehttps://levictousltd.co website and Italian investors aimed at soliciting investments on said website https://levictousltd.co,and the absence of a mechanism to block access/ registration by users attempting to access/register with the website https://levictousltd.co from Italy through Italian IP addresses has been noted; in addition complaints have also been received from Italian investors who have reported that they were unable to get back the sums deposited for trading transactions;

WHEREAS the https://levictousltd.co website and its webpage https://client.levictousltd.co could not be attributed to any entity authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public;

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 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 must 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://levictousltd.co website and its page https://client.levictousltd.co, 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.

12 June 2024

p. THE CHAIRMAN
Maria Chiara Mosca