A jury in Toronto found Aiden Pleterski, who calls himself the "Crypto King," guilty of fraud over $5,000 on Thursday morning.
Pleterski, 27, represented himself at the trial in Ontario Superior Court and appeared emotional when the verdict was read. Jurors began deliberating at about 10:30 a.m. and returned 10 minutes before noon.
He will be held under house arrest while he awaits sentencing, with his parents, who attended court for the verdict, serving as his sureties. He has hired Marco Sciarra, who represented him in an earlier bid to delay the trial, for sentencing. He is due back in court Nov. 13 to schedule those proceedings.
Pleterski and Crown prosecutor Scott Patterson each declined to comment after the verdict.
The Crown said Pleterski took more than $36 million from investors to trade but never put any of it into the FXChoice trading platform on their contracts. Financial records presented at trial showed he spent $16.3 million on himself and returned $16.1 million to investors, prosecutors said.
Albert Ciorma, a senior forensic accountant with the Ontario Securities Commission, testified that investors provided more than $36.3 million. He said the spending included about $5.6 million on luxury vehicles, $4.9 million on credit card bills, $870,000on travel and private jets and $598,000 on security. He also said nearly $3.7 million went to Pleterski's parents and $609,000 was taken in credit card cash advances.
The jury also heard a June 2022 recording in which Pleterski said a purported $300-million fund had never existed. Investors had earlier been shown screenshots of an account with a balance above $311 million.
In closing, Crown prosecutor Akshay Aurora called Pleterski "a thief" who stole investor money "using calculated lies." The Crown dropped a second charge, money laundering, at the end of its case.
Pleterski cross-examined only the first of the 14 witnesses called by the Crown. He called no evidence and did not testify. In a brief closing statement Wednesday he said: "I am innocent of these charges. That is why I pled not guilty. Had I not been forced to represent myself, that would have been proven."
Justice Shaun Nakatsuru denied Pleterski's request for a mistrial earlier this week. He gave his full reasons Thursday after the jury began deliberating. "I'm still confident if Mr. Pleterski had chosen to do so he would have been able to make full defence," Nakatsuru said.
Pleterski was arrested in May 2024. Investors forced him into bankruptcy in the summer of 2022.
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