On Tuesday, October 6, 2026, CBC reported that a Toronto jury heard testimony from two investors on the opening day of the fraud and money laundering trial of Aiden Pleterski, the self-described “Crypto King,” who is accused of spending clients’ money on exotic cars, private jet travel and lavish shopping instead of investing it.
Pleterski, 27, has pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000 and money laundering. He is representing himself at trial in Ontario Superior Court.
In his opening statement, Crown prosecutor Scott Patterson alleged that between July 2020 and July 2022, Pleterski guaranteed returns on money he collected for cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange trading but never invested it. Patterson told jurors the funds went toward Pleterski’s lifestyle, including credit card bills running into the millions of dollars, and said they would see his financial records.
The Crown said Pleterski had been supported by his parents until the pandemic and lived with them until June 2020. According to the prosecution, the federal COVID-19 benefit was his only income until he began soliciting investments in the summer of 2020. Patterson said Pleterski’s spending grew as money came in, and that he treated investors’ funds as his own.
Prosecutors plan to call about 15 witnesses, most of them people who gave money to Pleterski, along with a forensic accountant and a police witness.
The first witness, realtor Luciano Valerio, testified that he withdrew a total of $150,000 from his line of credit to invest with Pleterski in 2022. Valerio said he knew Pleterski from earlier work at a car rental company and learned of his purported success through Pleterski’s parents, who were looking at real estate through him. He said he was assured his initial investment would be protected and that he would be treated like family.
Valerio met Pleterski in January 2022 and invested $50,000 through Pleterski’s company, AP Private Equity Limited. He told the court he signed a contract but never received a copy. The court was shown a spreadsheet Pleterski sent him, which listed weekly returns of five per cent and showed the investment worth just under $89,800 by the week of April 11.
Valerio said he handed over another $100,000 in early April 2022. Shortly afterward, he said he had difficulty reaching Pleterski. When he asked to withdraw $5,000, Pleterski told him to wait three to four days, after which messages went unanswered. Valerio testified that he never recovered any of his money and that the loss strained his marriage.
The Crown said other investors encountered similar delays and were told their money was frozen. Patterson said that was untrue because the funds had been spent.
During cross-examination, Pleterski disputed that Valerio lacked a copy of the contract, saying it was part of his bankruptcy proceeding. Valerio replied that he signed it on the hood of Pleterski’s Audi and was promised a copy that never arrived, adding that neither he nor the bankruptcy had one. Pleterski also suggested Valerio knew he was trading in unregulated cryptocurrency.
The second witness, Olesya Chornenka, testified that she invested a total of $72,300 in July and August 2021. She said she asked for her money back about three months later. Jurors were shown months of text messages in which she repeatedly requested her funds, including stretches when Pleterski did not reply. Chornenka said she began to suspect a pyramid scheme. Justice Shaun Nakatsuru instructed the jury that the comment was her opinion and should not be given further weight.
Pleterski was arrested in May 2024 following a joint investigation by Durham Regional Police and the Ontario Securities Commission, called Project Swan. Police alleged he ran a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme involving investor funds over two years. In the summer of 2022, investors forced him into bankruptcy in an effort to recover millions of dollars.
Source: *CBC*
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