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Ontario’s “cryptocurrency king” arrested on fraud charges
Self-proclaimed crypto kingpin Aiden Pleterski of Ontario has been arrested and charged with fraud. (aiden_pletersik/Instagram – image credit)
Ontario’s self-proclaimed Crypto King has been arrested and charged with fraud.
Aiden Pleterski, 25, was charged with fraud over $5,000 and laundering the proceeds of crime on May 2, according to Oshawa court records.
For more than a year and a half, Pleterski’s investors have been trying to track down more than $40 million they gave him to invest in cryptocurrencies and foreign exchange. A Toronto-based bankruptcy proceeding being heard in the Ontario Superior Court has recovered about $3 million for about 160 investors.
Bankruptcy proceedings are administered by a licensed bankruptcy trustee, a federally regulated professional responsible for investigating the finances of a person or business that has gone bankrupt and administering its assets.
In this case, the trustee is from Grant Thornton, an accounting firm. The trustee’s investigation found that Pleterski invested only about 2% of investors’ funds while spending nearly $16 million on himself: chartering private jets, going on vacations, adding luxury cars to his collection and renting a mansion by the lake before its bankruptcy.
CBC Toronto has reported extensively on Pleterski since he was declared bankrupt in the summer of 2022. Last fall, Pleterski was still traveling to the UK, Miami and Australia.
And there’s more.