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Aiden Pleterski, the self-described “Crypto King,” was found guilty of fraud over $5,000 by the jury at his Toronto trial Thursday morning.
Pleterski, who represented himself at trial, appeared emotional after the verdict was read in Ontario Superior Court.
The jury began deliberations around 10:30 a.m. and came back with their verdict 10 minutes before noon.
Pleterski will be under house arrest as he awaits sentencing. His parents, who were in court for the verdict, will act as his sureties. Pleterski has also hired Marco Sciarra, the lawyer who represented him in his earlier effort to delay his trial, to handle his sentencing proceedings.
Both Pleterski and Crown prosecutor Scott Patterson denied requests for comment after the verdict.
Patterson’s co-counsel described Pleterski as “a thief” in the prosecution’s closing statement Wednesday.
“Mr. Pleterski was no ‘Crypto King.’ Far from it. As it turns out he was no king at all. He was a thief. A thief who stole investor money and used it as he pleased. A thief who stole investor money using calculated lies,” Crown prosecutor Akshay Aurora told the jury.
“As you’ve seen, he burned through that money.… He lived his best life, all while his investors pleaded for updates on their money, only to be ignored.”
Crown prosecutor Akshay Aurora delivered a roughly 90-minute closing statement at Pleterski’s fraud trial on Wednesday. (Pam Davies/CBC)
Pleterski took more than $36 million from investors for trading, but never put a cent of it into the trading platform FXChoice on their contracts. Instead, the Crown provided financial records at trial showing Pleterski spent $16.3 million of it on himself and gave another $16.1 million back to investors as returns.
At the end of the Crown’s case, they dropped a second charge of money laundering against him.
A CBC News investigation was first to report on Pleterski more than four years ago when some of his investors forced him into bankruptcy in the summer of 2022. At the time, they were looking to unravel where at least $35 million they provided him ended up.
Between then and his arrest in May 2024, Pleterski was kidnapped in connection to his scheme, he continued jet-setting despite his bankruptcy, and a Canadian NBA star successfully sued to get out of his $8.4 million purchase of lakefront mansion where Pleterski used to live.
Earlier this week, Pleterski was denied a mistrial. He argued that he didn’t have a fair trail without a lawyer. Pleterski only cross-examined the first of 14 witnesses the Crown called at his trial and decided not to call any evidence in his defence or testify himself.
He did make a brief closing statement to the jury Wednesday.
Pleterski addressed the jury for the first time at his fraud trial yesterday in Toronto, giving a brief closing statement on Oct. 28, 2026. (Pam Davies/CBC)
“I am the least qualified person here to give a closing statement,” said Pleterski, addressing the jury for the first time.
“However, that being said, I am innocent of these charges. That is why I pled not guilty. Had I not been forced to represent myself, that would have been proven. That’s all I have to say.”
Justice Shaun Nakatsuru gave his full decision denying Pleterski’s request for a mistrial Thursday morning after the jury began deliberations.
“I’m still confident if Mr. Pleterski had chosen to do so he would have been able to make full defence,” Nakatsuru said in his ruling.
“Nothing I have seen at this trial has changed my view on that…. He has not brought a computer or a tablet, he has not brought any Crown disclosure…. He has not made a single note that I have seen…. I’m not even sure he was paying attention to the witnesses.”
Pleterski will be back in court on Nov. 13 to schedule dates for his sentencing.
