‘Crypto King’ spent $16.3M of investor funds on cars, credit cards, jets, security, accountant testifies

Self-described “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterski spent nearly half of the $36.3 million investors gave him on himself and paid out about the same amount to investors as returns between 2020 and 2022, according to a senior forensic accountant who testified at his trial in Toronto’s Superior Court on Friday.

Albert Ciorma, who works for the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), told the court that none of the funds Pleterski received from investors were ever sent to FXChoice — the trading platform their contracts said he’d use on their behalf. And only about $113,000 was ever sent to other foreign exchange and cryptocurrency platforms.

Instead, Ciorma said his forensic audit found Pleterski spent about $5.6 million on luxury vehicles, $4.9 million on credit card bills, $870,000 on travel and private jets, $598,000 on security, and Pleterski gave nearly $3.7 million to his parents. He also took $609,000 in cash advances from a credit card. Altogether, those expenses total more than $16.3 million. 

Pleterski also paid out another $16.1 million to investors from the funds he received, according to Ciorma.

The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000 and money laundering. Pleterski was charged in May 2024 after a lengthy investigation by the OSC and Durham Regional Police. 

Albert Ciorma, a senior forensic accountant, testified about self-described ‘Crypto King’ Aiden Pleterski’s bank accounts at his fraud and money laundering trial on Friday. (Pam Davies/CBC)

Since the start of Pleterski’s jury trial last week, the Crown has alleged that he guaranteed the money his investors gave him for trading, but never actually invested the funds, instead spending the money on himself. Ciorma’s testimony on Friday was the first detailed evidence presented in court to support that aspect of the Crown’s case.

Previously, nearly a dozen investors testified to giving Pleterski more than $6 million collectively. They all shared similar stories of providing Pleterski funds to trade in foreign exchange, and in some cases cryptocurrency, with weekly gains of about two to 10 per cent. They received texts from Pleterski updating them on these returns. 

Most of them said they never got any of their money back. 

Millions flow in, and then out

Crown prosecutor Scott Patterson went through dozens of pages of records Ciorma compiled summarizing Pleterski’s bank accounts with the forensic accountant in court. 

“We see the same pattern, money in and expenses to credit cards,” said Patterson, referencing transactions from the spring of 2021.

The records showed millions of dollars of investor money flowing in, and then flowing out of Pleterski’s bank accounts to pay for credit card bills, cars, hotels, designer clothing and jewelry. 

Other expenses include more than $84,000 for a luxury property rental in Miami in October 2021 and $95,200 to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team in April 2022.

The jury in Aiden Pleterski’s trial was shown this photo last week of Mitchell Learning holding his own phone with a screenshot he testified Pleterski sent him of Pleterski’s trading account with a balance of more than $311 million. (Ontario Superior Court of Justice)

Two investors who previously testified spoke about seeing a video of Pleterski’s FXChoice account showing a balance of $311 million in the spring of 2022. 

One of them, Mitchell Learning, later gained access to Pleterski’s email account and found an email showing the same FXChoice account had been closed. He then testified that Pleterski confessed to him that he’d lost investor funds and then started using new money from investors to make payouts to others.

“Did you see $311 million in either of those accounts?” Patterson asked the accountant about the FXChoice accounts he reviewed.

“No, just what we’ve seen today,” replied Ciorma.

Pleterski’s trial is expected to continue Monday with further testimony from the forensic accountant.