Self-described “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterski admitted his $300-million fund never existed in a June 2022 audio recording played in court at his fraud trial in Toronto on Monday.
Pleterski, 27, was providing screenshots and videos of his FXChoice trading platform account with a balance more than $311 million to concerned investors just weeks before the recorded meeting with three investors, Pleterski and a lawyer he brought with him, Ontario Superior Court heard.
One of those three investors, Chris Winn, started testifying remotely Monday morning.
The retired Durham Regional Police officer is the last of 14 witnesses the Crown has called in their prosecution. Winn, who invested a combined $450,000 himself and through a holding company, said he got back $330,000. He testified to attending two meetings at the home of another investor with Pleterski.
Chris Winn, a retired Durham Regional Police officer, invested a combined $450,000 himself and through a holding company with Aiden Pleterski, and testified in Ontario Superior Court that he got back $330,000. (Monica Winn/Facebook)
“He told us basically he hadn’t traded any of the money and basically it’s a Ponzi scheme,” said Winn.
Pleterski, who is representing himself at trial, has pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000 and money laundering.
Near the beginning of the roughly three-hour recording from the second meeting, this exchange between Pleterski and the two other investors present, Brad Rogers and Jason Affleck, occurs:
Pleterski: “The $300 million it was –”
Rogers: “Never existed, you said.”
Pleterski: “It never existed.”
Affleck: “But how was that shown to us on a screen, and a piece of paper, was that Photoshopped? Or was that documented? Like how was that — we saw it?”
Pleterski: “Mitch showed you the picture and all that based on whatever, then that account basically never existed.”
Earlier in the trial, another investor and former friend of Pleterski’s, Mitchell Learning, testified he went looking for “proof in person” of how much money was in Pleterski’s investment account — after receiving a screenshot and video showing the FX Choice with a $311-million balance.
Learning went to Pleterski’s lakefront mansion in Burlington, Ont., in June 2022 and was able to access Pleterski’s email account on his computer. He testified that he found an email from FXChoice confirming Pleterski had deleted that account.
Learning told the court Pleterski admitted to losing the money trading the year before and said to Learning that he’d been paying investors back with other investors’ funds since then.
Mitchell Learning outside Ontario Superior Court in Toronto on Oct. 9 at the trial of Pleterski. (Mehrdad Nazarahar/CBC)
The investor meeting with Winn, Pleterski and others took place about a week after Learning testified Pleterski confessed what was going on to Learning in June 2022, according to the recording.
“Since January, I’ve refunded $700,000, lost it, I’ve refunded $1 million, lost it, I’ve refunded $300,000, lost it,” said Pleterski at the recorded meeting.
“That was money that was taken in from investors.”
A couple of investors talking over each other say “from us” and “we paid all your debts.”
‘I’m sitting here trying to make it right’: Pleterski
Over the course of the meeting, the investors try to suggest that Pleterski liquidate his assets and put them into a business controlled by the investors. From there, they would supervise Pleterski conducting trades to make everyone’s money back. They also regularly repeat they don’t trust Pleterski because he’s lied to them and make multiple references to him going to jail.
“This is one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in f–king Ontario,” said Winn, in one of those instances. “It’ll be front page of the paper.”
Pleterski enters Ontario Superior Court in Toronto on Oct. 5. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
After another part of the recording where investors talk about Pleterski lying, he raises his voice in response.
“If I had a malicious intent with any of this, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you guys, I’d be on a f–king plane getting out of here right now,” said Pleterski.
“I could have been gone long, a long f–king time ago, but I’m sitting here trying to make it right. Everybody’s f–king leaning on me.”
Pleterski also argues he knows how to trade, but said in the recording that he’s not in the headspace to do it well given the stress he’s under.
Since the start of his trial in early October, the Crown has alleged that Pleterski guaranteed the money his investors gave him for trading, but never actually invested the funds, instead spending the money on himself. Just over a week ago, the court was presented with the first detailed evidence in support of that aspect of the prosecution’s case.
$16.3M spent on himself: accountant
A senior forensic accountant who reviewed Pleterski’s financial records testified that investors provided Pleterski with more than $36.3 million and none of those funds were ever sent to FXChoice, the trading platform investor contracts said Pleterski would use on their behalf.
Instead, Albert Ciorma from the Ontario Securities Commission 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 and $598,000 on security. Pleterski also gave nearly $3.7 million to his parents and took $609,000 in cash advances from a credit card, Ciorma said.
Albert Ciorma, a senior forensic accountant with the Ontario Securities Commission, testified earlier this month in Pleterski’s fraud trial. (Pam Davies/CBC)
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.
Winn’s testimony and the rest of the audio recording of the investor meeting he attended are expected to be heard in court Monday afternoon.
After that’s completed, Pleterski will have the opportunity to call witnesses and testify himself if he chooses.
