• Pleterski brags about luxury living on social media
• 140 investors are demanding a total of $35 million back
• Confiscated assets are nowhere near enough
With his wealth publicly displayed in the media and social platforms, 23-year-old Aiden Pleterski has attracted numerous private and professional investors. He is said to have owned numerous luxury cars as well as gold bars, traveled mostly in a private jet, and lived in a posh villa for $45,000 rent.
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Pleterski also started investing for people he knew. He then placed ads in various media outlets, such as the right-wing news and opinion website The Daily Caller, that looked like editorials and portrayed him as a talented trader or “crypto king.” Investors became aware of him more through recommendations and word of mouth than through a professional corporate image. “The whole thing was based on trust,” admitted one investor who was scammed $50,000 and now doubts Pleterski invested the money at all.
Pleterski entered into investor contracts with investors promising a fortnightly return of 10 to 20 percent. According to the contract, the investment should also be completely risk-free, because even in the event of failure, the amount deposited would be guaranteed, writes CBC Toronto. The profit should go 70 percent to the investors and 30 percent to Pleterski.
Fraud allegations against the Crypto King
In total, Toronto-based law firm Investigation Counsel PC currently represents 140 investors alleging fraud against Aiden Pleterski. They followed up with a call from the law firm, which represents alleged victims of fraud. “It was a big surprise. We’ve never had a reaction like this,” Investigation Counsel PC founder Norman Groot told CBC Toronto.
The initiator of the lawsuit in Oshawa, Ontario District Court is a professional investor who reportedly transferred a total of $4,565,000 in client assets to Pleterski’s firm AP Private Equity Limited between April 1, 2021 and January 16, 2022. The plaintiff alleges that he acted on an investor’s recommendation and transferred the money to Pleterski’s personal account so that he could “pool” it for transfer to his brokerage account with FX Choice in Belize.
In February of this year, the plaintiff subsequently made inquiries after Pleterski had failed to repay a requested amount and had not responded to his questions. It turned out that FX Choice was not aware of any brokerage account under the name provided, prompting the plaintiff to take legal action. He initially managed to have Pleterski’s assets frozen. However, the confiscated assets of approximately $2 million were nowhere near enough to meet debts owed to creditors.
Where are the missing millions?
Now, of course, the question arises whether the defendant invested the money at all and lost it in the course of the broad price drop in the crypto market, as he claims. A series of “bad trades” in a crashing crypto market cannot serve as a sufficient explanation. Especially since Pleterski states that he has no documents about his investments and does not know what the amounts are. The big question, of course, is where the money has gone. “This man had a high lifestyle, but that doesn’t explain the missing amount,” the plaintiffs’ attorney told CBC Toronto.
At a meeting of creditors at the end of August, Pleterski was questioned at length by the defrauded investors. He believes the claims are “greatly exaggerated,” his lawyer told CBC Toronto.
Pleterski himself never asked for money and investors did not question given the promised huge profits. “Shockingly, no one seems to have given much thought to what would happen if the cryptocurrency market crashed, or whether Aiden was qualified to make this type of investment as a very young man,” Pleterski’s lawyer wrote to the channel. His client is cooperating in the ongoing insolvency proceedings and has an interest in a solution that is as fair as possible for all parties involved.
“If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t true,” CBC Toronto also quoted as referring to the certified fraud auditor and creditors’ attorney, who, given the promised biweekly 10 to 20 percent returns, only fueled the greed and euphoria of emerging market investors can blame the crypto market. “Five percent interest [pro Woche] are not available on the open market. A 23-year-old boy probably won’t be next Bill Gates – talk to someone conservative and get a second opinion”.
An official written statement from the suspect himself is not available, but he is quoted in various media from the minutes of the hearing as merely describing himself as “a 20-year-old child”.
Editorial finanzen.net
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