Resolution no. 22498

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.pro

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. potential investors are offered the opportunity through the https://coinevo.pro website – which is active, registered anonymously and partially available in Italian – to trade CFDs relating to currencies, commodities and shares;

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

iii. in particular, the website https://coinevo.pro mentions three types of account known as "CentAcc", "ProAcc" and "Pro+Acc", depending on the minimum deposit required and the benefits offered;

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

HAVING REGARD TO Consob Resolutions no. 22333 of 10 May 2022 and no. 22385 of 27 June 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 websites https://coinevo.co and https://coinevo.io respectively;

WHEREAS, in addition to using a domain that is partially superimposable on the one of the https://coinevo.co and https://coinevo.io separate websites, the https://coinevo.pro website replicates the content and graphic format of the https://coinevo.co and https://coinevo.io websites;

WHEREAS the activity carried out through thehttps://coinevo.pro websiteconstitutes the provision of investment services pursuant to article 1, paragraph 5, of the Consolidated Law on Finance, given that users are offered the opportunity through said domain to open a tradingaccount and place orders to buy and/or sell financial instruments;

WHEREAS the above-described transactions, carried out through the https://coinevo.prowebsite, are still ongoing and are aimed at Italian investors since the https://coinevo.pro website is partially available in Italian and there have also been reports, in relation to the website, ofcold calling of retail investors in Italy. In addition, financial losses have been reported by Italian investors in relation to initiatives promoted through the website https://coinevo.pro and no mechanism was found aimed at preventing registration by users who attempt to subscribe to the website https://coinevo.pro from Italy/through Italian IP addresses;

WHEREAS Lilac Group LLC, with its registered address in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, mentioned on the website https://coinevo.pro,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.pro 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.

3 November 2022

THE ACTING CHAIRMAN
Giuseppe Maria Berruti