Nigeria warns against Italy’s blacklisted firms

Nigeria’s apex capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the public against patronising firms blacklisted by Italy’s securities regulator, Commissione Nazionale per le Soecieta’ e la Borsa (CONSOB).

CONSOB had blacklisted five additional e-commerce websites for offering unauthorised and fraudulent financial services.

The blacklisted websites included CMS or capmarketstrategy.io, Bitsterzio, Invest Atlas, Ether-Arena Limited and Ether-Arena Limited operating under veneab.co

CONSOB had ordered Internet Service Providers (ISP) operating in Italy to block public access to the blacklisted websites and called on prospective investors to adopt the greatest diligence in making investment choices.

CONSOB advised investors that common sense behaviors are essential to safeguarding one’s savings, including checking the registration status or otherwise of such e-commerce websites.

SEC cautioned Nigerian investing public that the e-commerce websites were not registered by Nigeria and the financial services offered by these e-commerce websites were also not authorised by the SEC.

“In view of the above, the general public is hereby warned that any person dealing with the above mentioned e-commerce websites is doing so at his or her own risk,” SEC stated.