WallStreetBets’ Keith Gill Says He Made $48 Million on GameStop Stock

Of the millions of users on WallStreetBets, no one seems more famous or visible at the moment than Keith Gill, who goes by the names DeepF--kingValue on Redditor and Roaring Kitty on Twitter.

Gill racked up a reported 11-figure net worth as he egged on the short squeeze of GameStop stock. Now, he’s facing scrutiny from lawmakers, lawyers, and regulators. Here’s the drama behind this WallStreetBets figurehead.

As GameStop’s share price spiked to as high as $483, Gill shared a Reddit image showing that his stake in the video game retailer was worth $48 million. However, The New York Times noted that his returns couldn't be independently verified.

Now, Gill is under the crosshairs of William Galvin, the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth. Galvin is looking into Gill’s recent job as a financial wellness education director at MassMutual, an insurance company based in Boston, Mass. According to The New York Times, Galvin’s office wrote to MassMutual’s general counsel to ask about the company’s “process for identifying undisclosed business activities.”

MassMutual told regulators that Gill worked at the company through Jan. 28. The company said that it would have asked Gill to stop his posts or would have fired him if it had known about his social media activities, the newspaper reported.

According to The Verge, a new lawsuit alleges that Gill’s “fake persona” as an “amateur, everyday fellow” doesn’t line up with his several financial certifications and his decade-long experience in the finance and investment industries. The complaint also claimed that Gill used this persona as he communicated to his “legions of fans” and that he “incited a market frenzy.”

Later, Gill provided written testimony that he had 529 YouTube subscribers and 550 Twitter followers as of December 25, 2020.

Hagens Berman, the law firm behind the lawsuit, is asking for investors to submit their complaints.

Along with the CEOs of Reddit, Robinhood, Citadel, and Melvin Capital, Gill faced the House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 18. The committee continues to investigate the GameStop stock surge, Robinhood’s restrictions on GameStop trading, and Melvin’s loss of millions in the short squeeze.

“The market was underestimating the prospects of GameStop’s legacy business, and overestimating the prospect of bankruptcy,” Gill told the committee. “GameStop stores still provide real value to consumers, and reliable revenue for GameStop,” Gill told the committee. Gill explained that he believed the store chain would see profits from Sony and Microsoft’s latest gaming consoles, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Gill also said, “I believe that GameStop has the potential to reinvent itself as the ultimate destination for gamers within the rapidly growing $200 billion gaming industry GameStop has a unique opportunity to pivot toward a technology-driven business. By embracing the digital economy GameStop may be able to find new revenue streams that vastly exceed the value of its business and hardly the only person who has advocated these points.”