Resolution no. 22385

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://coinevo.io

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 website https://coinevo.io - which is active, registered by an anonymous user and partially available in Italian - offers potential investors the opportunity to trade CFDs on currencies, commodities and shares;

ii. in order to place such trades, users must register with the website https://coinevo.io – through a procedure that is also available in Italian – access their personal area – which is also available in Italian – and open a trading account and deposit the necessary funds;

iii. in particular, the website https://coinevo.io lists three types of account, referred to as "Cent", "Pro" and "Pro+", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

iv. as regards traceability, the footer of the website https://coinveo.io states that "this website is owned and operated by Lilac Group LLC", with reported registered offices in Saint Vincent and Grenadines;

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolution no. 22333 of 10 May 2022, which ordered the company Lilac Group LLC, with declared registered office in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, to cease the infringement of art. 18 of the Consolidated Law on Finance conducted through the separate website https://coinevo.co;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially similar to the domain of the aforementioned site https://coinevo.co, the site https://coinevo.io replicates the content and graphic format of the said site https://coinevo.co;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through the website https://coinevo.io constitutes the provision of investment services according to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity to open a trading account and place buy and/or sell orders on financial instruments;

WHEREAS the aforementioned activity, carried out through the website https://coinevo.io, is still ongoing and is aimed at Italian investors, insofar the registration for the website https://coinevo.io and the personal area of the same domain are available in Italian and no mechanism was found to block registration from users from Italy/Italian IP addresses connecting to the website https://coievo.io. Moreover, reports have been received of investment solicitation by means of cold calling towards retail investors in Italy on behalf of the website https://coinevo.io, and furthermore complaints have been received from Italian retail investors regarding the offerings advertised by the website https://coinevo.io;

WHEREAS Uncanny Services LLC, with stated registered address in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is not authorised to provide investment services to the Italian public, since it does not appear on the register maintained 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 art. 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 abusive practices" - Consob "may, with regard to anyone who offers or carries out investment services or activities over the Internet without being qualified to do so pursuant to this decree: […] b) order the cessation of the infringement";

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://coinevo.io website, consisting in the offering and provision of investment services and activities to the Italian public.

This Resolution shall be disclosed to the public through publication in the Consob Bulletin.

This measure may be appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio within 60 days.

27 June 2022

THE CHAIRMAN
Paolo Savona