26-year-old Nathan Gauvin allegedly built trust in online communities before orchestrating elaborate securities fraud involving fabricated credentials, phantom returns, and luxury lifestyle funded by investor losses
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Canadian citizen Nathan Gauvin, age 26, and three affiliated entities—Blackridge, LLC, Gray Digital Capital Management USA, LLC, and Gray Digital Technologies, LLC—with orchestrating two fraudulent securities offerings that raised over $18 million from retail investors across the United States and internationally. The charges, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on December 10, 2025, reveal a sophisticated social media-driven fraud scheme that exploited trust built within Discord investment communities.
Case Analysis: Anatomy of a Discord-Based Fraud
Gauvin’s operation demonstrates the evolution of securities fraud in the digital age. Beginning in 2021, he gained credibility within the Discord community “Cryptonaiz” by positioning himself as an experienced investment professional managing over $1 billion through Blackridge, which was actually a shell entity. From September 2022 to November 2024, Gauvin raised approximately $18.1 million through unregistered offerings in the “Gray Fund,” which falsely claimed to combine traditional finance and decentralized finance (TradFi + DeFi) strategies.
The fraud’s sophistication involved multiple deceptive layers: fabricated performance metrics showing 4,384% cumulative returns when actual monthly compounded returns were approximately 1.4%, doctored brokerage statements to inflate asset values, and fraudulent audit attestation reports claiming $78 million in assets under management. Gauvin allegedly misappropriated approximately $6.3 million for personal expenses, including custom jewelry, luxury concierge services, real estate, and art.
In May 2024, Gauvin launched a second scheme offering “seed stock” in Gray Digital Technologies at $30,000 per share, falsely claiming a $60 million valuation and $12 million annual revenue when the company had no operations, assets, or revenue. When the SEC initiated investigation in October 2024, Gauvin allegedly submitted fraudulent documents to obstruct proceedings and fraudulently obtained approximately $800,000 in credit using falsified bank statements. He was arrested in England on December 11, 2025, and awaits extradition.
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