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by Mike Caswell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against Nathan Gauvin, a 26-year-old from Ontario, for improperly raising $18.1-million over a two-year period while claiming to manage $1.7-billion in assets. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) The SEC claims that Mr. Gauvin met investors in on-line chat rooms and told them that he ran a New York financial firm. He said that he would trade their assets in debt, equities and cryptocurrencies, but spent investor money on art, luxury concierge services and custom jewellery, among other things, the SEC says.

The allegations are contained in a civil complaint that the SEC filed on Wednesday, Dec. 10, in federal court in New York. The complaint identifies Mr. Gauvin as a resident of Ontario, living in Sudbury or London. He controls a Delaware entity called Blackridge LLC, which purports to have $1.7-billion in assets under management, according to the complaint.

The events at issue, as set out by the SEC, go back to 2022, when Mr. Gauvin (then 22) started an on-line educational service through the messaging platform Discord. Despite having no financial experience, he told investors that he managed over a billion dollars in assets and that he had experience at "specific prestigious investment firms," the complaint states. He charged $200 per month for investment advice, according to the SEC.

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