Resolution no. 22051

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://igfb.one

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 24 February 1998 ("Consolidated Law on Finance") and subsequent amendments and supplements;

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

i. the website https://igfb.one, which is active and available in Italian, offers potential investors the possibility of trading on the Forex market and trading on CFDs, indices, shares and commodities;

ii. in order to trade via the website https://igfb.one, users must register and open an account by accessing the reserved area where it is possible to deposit and withdraw funds on the trading account;

iii. as regards the company that operates the website, on the website https://igfb.one reference is made to Seabreeze Partners LTD, with alleged registered office in Dominica.

HAVING REGARD to Resolutions no. 21834 of 5 May 2021 and no. 22029 of 6 October 2021, whereby the above Seabreeze Partners LTD, with alleged registered office in Dominica, was ordered to cease its infringement of article 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate websites https://profitassist.io and the page https://webtrader.profitassist.cc and www.profitassist.co;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://igfb.one 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 placing buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above activity, carried out by Seabreeze Partners LTD through the website https://igfb.one is still ongoing and is addressed to Italian investors, given that website is also available in Italian;

WHEREAS that Seabreeze Partners LTD, with alleged registered office in Dominica, mentioned on the website https://igfb.one, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, given that it not listed in the register held by Consob pursuant to art. 20 of the Consolidated Law on Finance;

HAVING REGARD TO the requirement to hold a relevant licence in order to provide investment services, 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 abuse" - 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 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. 58/1998 carried out through the website https://igfb.one, consisting of the 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.

20 October 2021

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona