Luxury cars seized from 23-year-old ‘Crypto King’ as investors try to cash in millions

Two McLarens, two BMWs and a Lamborghini are just a few of the $2 million worth of assets seized from a 23-year-old from Whitby, Ont., as his investors try to recoup millions of dollars they handed over to self-described “Crypto King.”

But so far, Aiden Pleterski’s assets fall far short of what his investors claim they are owed.

Creditors are working to determine where at least $35 million given to Pleterski and his company AP Private Equity Limited for cryptocurrency and foreign exchange investments ended up, according to a fraud lawyer and documents filed in two separate actions reviewed by CBC Toronto.

Diane Moore invested $60,000 she had earmarked for her grandchildren’s education after meeting Pleterski through someone she had known for years. Now she is out $50,000.

“The whole thing was based on trust,” Moore said. “I think what Aiden has done is terrible – and I don’t know how he can live with himself.”

The terms of Moore’s investment included a 70-30 split of any capital gains (with 70 percent going to her and 30 percent to Pleterski), a commitment that the original investment would be repaid in full if it was lost, and target capital gains of 10 to 20 percent every two weeks, according to her investment contract.

“I don’t know if he ever really acted,” Moore said. “Or was this his plan and it was just the story to get me in with other people?”

The 65-year-old from Clarington, Ont., is now one of 29 creditors who claim they are owed nearly $13 million in bankruptcy proceedings against Pleterski. In a lawsuit, another investor who claims to be out $4.5 million won a Mareva injunction, effectively freezing Pleterski’s assets and bank accounts worldwide.

About 140 investors who handed over a combined $20 million responded to a call for information from a fraud law firm investigating Pleterski, some of whom are involved in the bankruptcy process.

“It was a big surprise, we’ve never had a response like that,” said Norman Groot, founder of Investigation Counsel PC, which only represents alleged victims of fraud.

Rented lakefront mansion for $45,000 a month

Through a bankruptcy trustee’s report, creditor meeting minutes, court documents and complaints to Groot’s firm, a picture emerges of Pleterski’s luxurious life before things fell apart. The young man, dubbed “The Crypto King” in several paid advertising articlesowned 11 cars, leased four other luxury cars, flew on private jets and paid $45,000 a month to rent a lakeside mansion in Burlington, Ont.

“This guy had a high lifestyle burn rate, but that doesn’t account for how much money is missing,” Groot told CBC Toronto.

“What’s difficult about this particular case is that Pleterski took in a lot of money — and how do you track money?”

The bankruptcy proceedings against him are the only recovery process for investors right now, because it takes precedence over the civil claims against Pleterski.

Investors questioned Pleterski at length in the first meeting of creditors – which lasted more than five hours – in late August, according to meeting minutes. Asked why he continued to invest money when he knew he couldn’t pay back his current investors, Pleterski said at the meeting that he “was a 20-something year old kid.”

Pleterski did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Financial demands “wildly exaggerated”: Pleterski’s lawyer

In an email, Pleterski’s lawyer told CBC Toronto that his client disputes many of the claims against him and believes the financial demands from many people who gave him money “have been wildly exaggerated.” Pleterski started investing in cryptocurrency as a teenager, and people gave him money to invest when they saw how much money he was making for himself and people around him — but he never asked for money, according to his lawyer Micheal Simaan.

“Shockingly, it seems no one bothered to consider what would happen if the cryptocurrency market plunged or whether Aiden, as a very young man, was qualified to handle this type of investment,” Simaan wrote.

“Aiden has cooperated with the bankruptcy process and hopes that it will be resolved in the fairest way for all involved.”

In the meeting of creditors, the trustee stated that Pleterski claimed he lost most of the money given to him in late 2021 and early 2022 “in a series of margin calls and bad trades.” But as of August 29, the trustee had not received anything to support that – despite asking for proof of trades and bank statements from Pleterski.

When asked about his record keeping for investment funds, Pleterski told the meeting that he was very disorganized, did not keep track of his finances and did not keep records of his debts or payments.

Never owned a watch worth more than $600K

Investors also inquired about a range of potential assets, including luxury cars, watches and gold bars. When asked if he had ever owned a Patek Philippe watch—and if he did, what happened to it—Pleterski told the meeting that he had never owned a Patek Philippe watch and that “he has never owned a watch of any value that is greater than $600,000.”

CBC Toronto also reviewed the Mareva injunction that was ordered as part of an investor-led lawsuit against Pleterski before the lawsuit was superseded by the bankruptcy proceedings.

In the ruling granting the injunction, Ontario Superior Court Justice Phillip Sutherland lays out the investor’s claim that he was provided with images and video of statements from a currency/cryptocurrency trading platform showing $311 million in the account of Pleterski’s company. But when the investor checked with the trading platform independently, he was told Pleterski and his company did not have accounts with such funds, according to the court ruling.

Like Moore, the investor claims from the lawsuit that the terms of the investment involved a 70-30 split on capital gains, and if the funds were lost, the entire original investment would be repaid to the investor in biweekly installments. The target for the capital gain will be 10-20 per cent growth every two weeks.

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t”

Groot, a certified fraud examiner for more than 20 years, says most of the funds given to Pleterski were given when the cryptocurrency was taking off last year, and there was a “greed factor or an excitement factor” involved.

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t,” he said.

“Five percent interest [a week] is not available on the open market. A 23-year-old boy is unlikely to be the next Bill Gates – talk to someone who is conservative and get a different opinion.”

Besides bankruptcy, Groot says the only other recourse available to investors would be to report to the Ontario Securities Commission and the police.

“These processes are long,” Groot said. “The more time that passes, the less likely it is to recover evidence — and the less likely it is to recover money.”

The lawyer told CBC Toronto that many investors who contacted his firm have reported Pleterski to police across the Toronto area. For her part, Moore says she – and investors who heard about the opportunity from her – have filed a report with Durham Regional Police.

Unlike Moore, some of these investors borrowed their investment funds from a line of credit.

“I feel terrible for them,” Moore said. “I just wish I’d never mentioned it.”

If you have a story you’d like us to investigate, contact CBC Toronto’s Enterprise Unit at [email protected]