{"id":940344,"date":"2026-10-20T18:22:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940344\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T18:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T18:22:22","slug":"crypto-king-aiden-pleterskis-fraud-trial-adjourned-until-next-week-due-to-medical-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940344\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Crypto King\u2019 Aiden Pleterski\u2019s fraud trial adjourned until next week due to medical issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Self-described \u2018Crypto King\u2019 Aiden Pleterski\u2019s fraud and money laundering trial is adjourned until next week due to a medical issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">The Crown was supposed to call its last witness Tuesday, but now that investor is expected to take the witness box when the case resumes on Monday in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Ontario Superior Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru explained to the jury the delay is a result of a \u201cnot super serious\u201d health issue that involves one of the participants in the trial.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A court sketch of a judge in court.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792520541_484_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4183266932270917\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption-oOSXz\">Ontario Superior Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru is presiding over the trial of self-described &#8216;Crypto King&#8217; Aiden Pleterski. (Pam Davies\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">\u201cCertain medical treatments are required and they\u2019re required sooner rather than later,\u201d said Nakatsuru.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">\u201cI want to express our collective gratitude for your patience and your paying close attention to the evidence, because I can just tell you are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Pleterski, who is representing himself at trial, has pleaded not guilty to fraud over $5,000 and money laundering. So far, the 27-year-old has only cross-examined the first of 13 witnesses who\u2019ve testified for the prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">All but two of those witnesses were investors who 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Most of them said they never got any of their money back.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH | How a forensic accountant says &#8216;Crypto King&#8217; spent investor funds:<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792520542_516_default.jpg\"  alt=\"\" class=\"thumbnail\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"video-item-title\">&#8216;Crypto King&#8217; bank records show he spent nearly half of investors&#8217; $36.3M on himself<\/p>\n<p>A forensic accountant who audited Aiden Pleterski&#8217;s bank accounts testified the 27-year-old never sent investors&#8217; money to the the trading platform their contracts said he\u2019d use on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Since <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/crypto-king-fraud-trial-begins-toronto-aiden-pleterski-9.7370119\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the start of Pleterski\u2019s trial<\/a> two weeks ago, 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. Last Friday, the court was presented with <a class=\"link-_o8iA html-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/crypto-king-spent-16-3m-of-investor-funds-on-cars-credit-cards-jets-security-accountant-testifies-9.7384413\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the first detailed evidence<\/a> in support of that aspect of the prosecution\u2019s case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">A senior forensic accountant, who reviewed Pleterski\u2019s financial records, testified that investors provided Pleterski with more than $36.3 million and none of those funds were ever sent to the trading platform investor contracts said Pleterski would use on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p>$16.3 million spent on himself, accountant testified<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Instead, Albert Ciorma from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) 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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Altogether, those expenses total more than $16.3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">Pleterski also paid out another $16.1 million to investors from the funds he received, according to Ciorma.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-b3GxD html-paragraph\">After the Crown\u2019s last witness testifies next week, Pleterski will have the opportunity to call witnesses and testify himself, if he so chooses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-940344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}