A 26-year-old Canadian citizen faces federal charges for allegedly running a multimillion-dollar investment fraud that targeted retail investors through Discord, raising questions about how social media platforms have become hunting grounds for financial scammers.

This 26-Year-Old Convinced Discord Users to Give Him $18M

Nathan Gauvin and three entities he controlled allegedly raised more than $18 million from investors across the United States and abroad between September 2022 and November 2024, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced parallel criminal charges against Gauvin on December 10.

The case shows how Gauvin allegedly built trust within Discord communities by positioning himself as an experienced investment professional, when he was actually a truck driver with fabricated credentials. He claimed to manage over a billion dollars through his firm Blackridge, which was actually a shell company.

"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.

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"Investors should always verify the credentials of anyone offering investment opportunities, especially when those opportunities are promoted through social media or online communities."

More than a year ago, FinanceMagnates.com reported how a once-popular gaming chat had turned into a hub for retail traders, and, along with them, for scammers.

Discord Community Becomes Investor Pool

Gauvin started in late 2021 by joining a Discord community called Cryptonaiz, where he went by "Gray" and shared investment insights about crypto assets. He gradually built a following by providing what appeared to be objective investment advice.

By early 2022, Gauvin created his own Discord community called Gray Digital, initially charging $200 per month for membership as an educational service. Members who followed him from Cryptonaiz became his target investor base.

In March 2022, Gauvin launched the Gray Fund through his entity Gray Digital Capital Management USA, which he claimed was a diversified investment fund that would hold and trade debt and equity securities, derivatives, and crypto assets.

He directed interested Discord members to Gray Digital's website, where they could invest by sending wire transfers, credit card payments, or stablecoins.

Gauvin took no steps to verify whether investors were accredited until July 2024, when Gray Digital finally began requiring Know Your Customer verifications. He never registered any securities offering with the SEC.

Chat-group scams carried out through Discord, as well as Telegram and WhatsApp, have become increasingly common. A few months ago, New Zealand’s financial markets regulator was among those warning about them.

Fabricated Returns and Fake Brokerage Statements

From February 2023 to January 2025, Gauvin and Gray Digital claimed on their website that the Gray Fund generated monthly returns ranging from 1.14% to 21.14%, with 17 of 24 months showing double-digit returns. In a February 2025 update, they claimed the fund held over $78 million in assets with a cumulative return of 4,775.88% since inception.

The reality was starkly different. Trading in accounts holding Gray Fund assets generated monthly compounded returns of approximately 1.4% during the period. Gauvin allegedly doctored brokerage statements from a Connecticut-based firm to show inflated asset values, even though the accounts were held in Blackridge's name, not the Gray Fund's.

In one example from January 2024, Gray Digital hired the South African affiliate of an international accounting firm to verify assets. The firm issued a report claiming Gray Digital had $37 million in assets based on a falsified brokerage statement Gauvin provided. The actual account balance was $7.5 million.

Gauvin also fabricated a $5 million line of credit from Saudi National Bank in February 2023, telling his Discord community it would increase monthly growth benchmarks from 10% to "30 to 50%". He posted what appeared to be a contract document to Discord, but the SEC alleges he copied an unrelated credit agreement filed by another company and publicly available on EDGAR.

In 2024 alone, proceeds for fraudsters from investment scams were estimated to exceed $12 billion, according to data from Chainalysis.

Investor Withdrawals Frozen, Funds Diverted

In mid-2024, Gauvin and Gray Digital stopped honoring withdrawal requests. The company announced in July 2024 that withdrawals would only be allowed quarterly, while continuing to accept monthly deposits from new investors.

Gauvin blamed "banking issues" and "malicious persons" who allegedly contacted Gray Digital's banks and exploited the monthly withdrawal structure. None of these explanations were true, according to the SEC.

On October 26, 2024, Gauvin posted that Gray Digital was "temporarily pausing further communications". He never fulfilled pending withdrawal requests.

Financial analysis shows Gauvin misappropriated approximately $6.3 million of investor funds from February 2023 to March 2025. He transferred over $2.8 million directly to personal accounts and used investor money to pay off personal credit cards.

Spending records show approximately $250,000 on custom jewelry, more than $100,000 on luxury concierge services, approximately $180,000 on real estate expenses, and more than $250,000 on art purchases.

The SEC's complaint charges Gauvin and his three entities with violating antifraud provisions of federal securities laws. It also charges Gauvin, Gray Digital, and Gray Digital Technologies with registration violations.