'Billion-Dollar' Manager on Discord? SEC Says Canadian Nathan Gauvin Raised $18 Million With Fake Credentials and Returns

Published Oct. 12, 2026. Case statuses are current as of that date, based on SEC records.

On Discord, he presented himself as an investment professional running more than a billion dollars. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm behind that claim was a shell.

On Dec. 10, 2025, the SEC charged Canadian citizen Nathan Gauvin and three entities he controls, Blackridge, LLC; Gray Digital Capital Management USA, LLC; and Gray Digital Technologies, LLC, with running two fraudulent securities offerings that raised more than $18 million from investors in the United States and abroad [1].

What the SEC alleges

According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York [1][2]:

• The persona. Gauvin built a Discord following by falsely presenting himself as a successful professional managing over a billion dollars through Blackridge, which the SEC says was "a mere shell entity."
• The Gray Fund. From September 2022 to November 2024, Gauvin and his entities raised about $18.1 million through an unregistered offering of interests in the "Gray Fund," a purported diversified fund advised by Gray Digital and Gauvin.
• The numbers. The SEC says they falsely claimed double-digit monthly returns and more than $78 million in assets. In fact, the complaint alleges, the fund's monthly compounded return was about 1.4% and its assets were far lower.
• The spending. The SEC alleges Gauvin misappropriated about $6.3 million, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on custom jewelry, luxury concierge services, real estate and art.
• A second offering. Starting in May 2024, Gauvin allegedly offered "seed stock" in Gray Digital Technologies at $30,000 a share, claiming a $60 million valuation and more than $12 million in annual revenue. The SEC says the company had no operations, assets or revenue. It raised at least $60,000 from two retail investors, and Gauvin then stopped communicating with them about it.

"Gauvin exploited the trust of his online followers to perpetrate a brazen fraud," said Jaime Marinaro, associate director of the SEC's Fort Worth Regional Office [1].

Charges and status

The SEC charges Gauvin and all three entities with antifraud violations, and Gauvin, Gray Digital and Gray Digital Technologies with registration violations. It seeks injunctions, disgorgement with interest, civil penalties, conduct-based injunctions and an investment-adviser bar against Gauvin [1][3].

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced criminal charges against Gauvin the same day [1]. He is presumed innocent of those charges unless proven guilty. We found no later SEC judgment on sec.gov as of Oct. 12, 2026, and no public response from Gauvin in the SEC materials.

What an SEC civil case is (and isn't)

The SEC is a civil regulator. When it "charges" someone, it files a lawsuit in federal court or brings an administrative proceeding asking for remedies such as injunctions, repayment of allegedly ill-gotten gains (disgorgement), civil money penalties and industry bars. It cannot send anyone to prison. Criminal charges, when there are any, are brought separately by federal prosecutors, and a defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Allegations in an SEC complaint are claims the agency must prove in court unless a defendant settles. When a defendant settles "without admitting or denying" the allegations, the court or the Commission enters an order, but the defendant has not conceded that the allegations are true. Throughout this article, statements about what happened are allegations or findings as described by the SEC, not established facts, unless we say a court entered a judgment or a defendant pleaded guilty.

Red flags in this case

• An online personality claiming huge assets under management that you can't verify.
• Monthly returns in the double digits.
• Account statements that come only from the promoter, not an independent custodian.
• Private 'seed stock' sold to followers at a fixed price with big valuation claims.

How to check an investment before you hand over money

• Look up the person and the firm on Investor.gov and FINRA BrokerCheck. A clean search is not proof of legitimacy, but a missing or mismatched record is a reason to stop.
• Read the offering documents yourself, and ask a fee-only professional you found independently to read them too.
• Be skeptical of "guaranteed" or fixed high returns. Real investments carry risk, and promises of safety plus high yield are a classic warning sign.
• Be wary of pressure. Deadlines, "limited allocations" and repeated calls are sales tactics, not investment analysis.
• Don't let trust in a group replace due diligence. Fraud often spreads through churches, ethnic and professional communities, online chat groups and friends-of-friends referrals.

If you think you were affected

1. Keep everything: account statements, emails, texts, wire and payment records, and any marketing material.
2. Report it to the SEC at sec.gov/tcr. If a criminal case is involved, you can also contact the FBI at ic3.gov or the prosecutors' victim-witness office.
3. Watch for a receiver or fair fund. In some SEC cases, money is later returned to harmed investors through a court-appointed receiver or a distribution fund. Notices are posted on sec.gov.
4. Beware of "recovery" offers. People who lost money are often targeted again by scammers promising to recover it for an upfront fee. Legitimate receivers and the SEC do not charge you to file a claim.

Case status (as of Oct. 12, 2026)

Defendant	Court	Status as of Oct. 12, 2026	Source
Nathan Gauvin, Canadian citizen	U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y. (SEC civil)	Sued Dec. 10, 2025; no later judgment found on sec.gov. Parallel criminal charges announced by E.D.N.Y. prosecutors; presumed innocent	[1], [3]
Blackridge, LLC; Gray Digital Capital Management USA, LLC; Gray Digital Technologies, LLC	U.S. District Court, E.D.N.Y. (SEC civil)	Sued Dec. 10, 2025; litigation pending	[1], [3]

Statuses can change. SEC allegations are claims, not findings of wrongdoing, unless a court has ruled.

Sources

1. SEC Press Release 2025-141, "SEC Charges Canadian Citizen With Fraud Schemes That Targeted Retail Investors on Discord," Dec. 10, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025-141-sec-charges-canadian-citizen-fraud-schemes-targeted-retail-investors-discord
2. SEC complaint, SEC v. Gauvin et al. (E.D.N.Y.). https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2025/comp-pr2025-141.pdf
3. SEC Litigation Release No. 26439, Dec. 12, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-26439

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