Resolution no. 21250

Prohibition, pursuant to article 101, paragraph 4, letter c) of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 that Mr. Emanuele Fiore carry out the advertising activities relating to the initiative called "Omega Best" carried out through the websites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it, and the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/

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 additions;

HAVING REGARD TO Legislative Decree no. 58 of 24 February 1998 and subsequent amendments and supplements (‘Consolidated Law on Finance’);

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, as a result of the supervisory activity carried out by Consob, evidence has been acquired that the company Expedite Spzoo, with stated address in Poland, (and recently also by Nautilius Investment Ltd with offices in the United Arab Emirates) offers users of its website (www.omega.best) the opportunity to purchase advertising packages called "Active Boxes" that would guarantee rather high returns;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that on the site www.omega.best, a Multi Level Marketing programme is also promoted that guarantees commissions to affiliates who recruit new subjects, to be included in the distribution chain at a lower level, on sales made by the latter;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the initiative referred to was advertised also through the websites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/ all of which can be traced back to Mr. Emanuele Fiore;

HAVING ESTABLISHED in particular that the website www.manuelcooper.com advances the possibility of "earning on the Internet [through some]" including the new initiative called "Omega Best", which would enable investors to obtain a "daily passive return of up to 1%". In this regard, on the Home page of the website there is a link to the website https://manuel.omegaita.it;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that likewise the website https://manuel.omegaita.it, attributed to the "Official Italian Team" of "Omega Best", promoted a "revolutionary platform, launched internationally, [which would offer] all project participants the opportunity to earn through simple actions related to advertising, market research, sales and product testing”. In particular, the website offered the possibility of "earning passive [returns] even without a network" by choosing two types of "Active Box" called "Active Box 6 months" and "Active Box 12 months", in order to, once the web marketing activities[1]had been carried out, produce a daily "passive return" of 0.71% (for six months) and 0.42% (for 12 months). On this point it was also specified that if the user does not intend to carry out the web marketing activities, the daily "return" linked to the two "Active Boxes” would be 0.355% (for six months) and 0.21% (for 12 months).

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/ hosted the contents of a closed group called "Omega Group Team Italia" of which Mr. Emanuele Fiore was an administrator;

HAVING FURTHER ESTABLISHED that there were numerous posts on the same Facebook page containing information and updates on initiatives, services and promotions related to the "Omega Best" initiative, such as some posts through which users were reminded, every Monday, that they can buy back new "Active Boxes" using their "accumulated balance", a post which links to a document entitled "Omega 2019/2020 Strategy", which made reference to an investment strategy, linked to the purchase of the aforementioned Active Boxes, to enable purchasers to obtain an "automatic passive return", [which would grow] exponentially over time";

HAVING ESTABLISHED that the return is paid against the use of the capital of the investor and that this return is related to the amount paid for the purchase of the so-called Active Boxes, rather than the number of views, considered that the user receives the return without performing any web marketing activities;

HAVING CONSIDERED, consequently, that the consideration in the contract in question can be linked to the production of a financial return as fee for the use of capital transferred by the recipients of this return, who, therefore, invest their own money with the expectation of profit;

CONSIDERING the fact that the purchase of advertising packages called "Active Boxes", offered by the website www.omega.best fulfils the criteria to constitute a public offering of financial products defined in Art. 1, para. 1, letter t) of the Consolidated Law on Finance as "every offer or incentive, invitation to offer or promotional message, in whatsoever form addressed to the public, whose objective is the sale or subscription of financial products including the allocation through authorised people”;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that within the sites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/ the investment proposed was presented in clearly fulsome terms as a very lucrative opportunity and with expressions that call for a rapid decision by the investor (such as, for example, "I will send you the strategy to maximize with Omega Best" or "from now on, for the next 15 days, you will have the opportunity to double what you get thanks to the direct bonus promotion of 12%!!!");

CONSIDERING, therefore, that Mr. Emanuele Fiore carried out advertising activities aimed at promoting participation in the public offering called "Omega Best” through the websites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it as well as the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/;

HAVING ALSO ESTABLISHED, that the advertising activity was aimed at the public resident in Italy, as the contents of the mentioned sites and the Facebook page that can be traced back to Mr. Emanuele Fiore were only available in Italian;

HAVING ESTABLISHED that, in relation to the offering described, the relevant prospectus has not been published;

CONSIDERING that Article 101 of the Consolidated Law on Finance states, in paragraph 2, that: "Prior to the publication of the prospectus is prohibited any form of advertisement concerning public offerings of financial products other than community financial products";

HAVING REGARD TO CONSOB’s Resolution no. 21147 of 13 November 2019, with which pursuant to Art. 101, para. 4, letter b), of Legislative Decree no. 58/98, CONSOB implemented the precautionary suspension measure, for a period of ninety days, for the advertising activities carried out by Mr. Emanuele Fiore through the websites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it as well as the Facebook page relating to the offer to the public resident in Italy called "Omega Best" regarding an investment of a financial nature;

WHEREAS Mr. Emanuele Fiore made his own observations which, however, did not provide appropriate elements to reach a different classification of the facts previously noted;

WHEREAS, therefore, in the absence of any evidence to suggest a classification other than that outlined in the aforementioned suspension measure, the circumstances de facto and de jure established in the suspension measure are considered to have been ascertained;

CONSIDERING, therefore, that it has been ascertained that - according to the methods described above - advertising activities are being carried out in relation to the public offering to residents in Italy of investments of a financial nature in breach of the above law;

HAVING REGARD TO Art. 101, para. 4, letter c) of the Consolidated Law on Finance, pursuant to which CONSOB may "prohibit the further distribution of the advertisement, if violation of the provisions or regulations referred to under paragraphs a) or b) are confirmed";

RESOLVES:

The advertising activity carried out by Mr. Emanuele Fiore, through the websites www.manuelcooper.com and https://manuel.omegaita.it, as well as the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/241778882951122/, regarding the offer to the public of investments of a financial nature called "Omega Best" promoted through the website www.omega.best. is prohibited.

This Resolution shall be brought to the attention of the person with whom it is concerned and will be 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.

February 5, 2020

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona

[1] In particular, the user would be asked to view a certain number of advertisements per day, as well as to complete a survey and comment on an article (the latter two activities can be carried out daily or weekly, depending on the type of "Active Box" chosen).