Canadian Crypto King kidnapped for ransom

The story of Aiden Pleterski, Canada’s self-proclaimed “Crypto King,” was already disturbing enough, but in recent days it has also become tragic.

In fact, Aiden Alojz Pleterski was already well known in Canadian news for an episode related to a multimillion-dollar theft.

The Canadian Crypto King: the million-dollar fraud

Pleterski was accused of creating an actual Ponzi scheme.

According to Ontario court documents, the 23-year-old Canadian filed for bankruptcy in August last year due to insolvency.

He had set up “investment schemes” that were supposed to generate gains for investors, but those gains were not paid.

Since the bankruptcy proceedings for insolvency began, its former clients have filed claims totaling C$25 million, or just over US$18 million.

Several creditors said the defendant induced them to make investments even with significant amounts by convincing them to invest with fraudulent social media posts. He presented himself as a trader in foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies, and seemed well-informed and successful.

His company that managed these investments, AP Private Equity Ltd. was supposed to trade clients’ funds on a Belize-based foreign exchange (FX Choice), but in August 2022 it turned out that this was just a trivial Ponzi scheme.

As soon as its scheme was unveiled, AP Private Equity filed for bankruptcy and stopped repaying investors.

The court later seized its assets, including two McLarens, a Lamborghini, and a collection of other luxury cars, and determined that AP Private Equity’s accumulated debt was $10 million. Over the course of months, however, it emerged from creditors’ claims that the debt was even larger, probably $18 million.

Pleterski of course was then also sued by AP Private Equity’s creditors, who claim in fact that they were defrauded. They claim that between April 2021 and January 2022, i.e., at the height of the crypto bull run, they were promised gains through fraudulent misrepresentations, for instead their funds were simply transferred to AP Private Equity, which was solely controlled by the “crypto king.”

In other words, Pleterski promised to invest his clients’ funds on FX Choice, when in reality he apparently simply cashed them in and spent or invested them for himself.

The accused later admitted that the Ponzi scheme he had set up began to implode as early as late November 2021, which was just days after the crypto market hit its all-time highs. As soon as his losses began to become significant, he took a very aggressive stance, but this did not lead to any results.

He stated that greed had taken over, and that he was trying to get returns that were “obviously weren’t feasible or weren’t necessarily possible at the time.” He clearly did not understand that the 2021 bubble was a speculative bubble that would inevitably burst sooner or later.

Moreover, earlier in June 2021, he was also charged with domestic violence in Florida.

The State of Florida’s criminal case against Aiden Alojz Pleterski is still pending.

The kidnapping

In December Aiden’s father, Dragan Pleterski, stated that his son had been kidnapped and held for about three days. He also stated that they had taken him to several locations in southern Ontario, beaten and tortured him, allowing him only to make specific phone calls to demand ransom payments.

It is all reported in documents filed by bankruptcy trustee Rob Stelzer on 14 March in Ontario court.

These documents state that during his captivity Pleterski contacted his landlord, Sandeep Gupta, from whom he demanded $3 million to pay the ransom.

According to his father’s statements, the “crypto king” was later released on the promise that he would quickly find the money to pay the ransom and that he would not inform law enforcement of the incident.

The reason why his kidnapping has only now come to light is precisely because this story was reported and published only recently, becoming part of the documents filed with the bankruptcy court a couple of weeks ago.

However, there are two points that are still unclear.

The first concerns the identity of the kidnappers. There is speculation circulating that they may be some of his scammed former customers who in this way would take revenge for the incident, even trying to extort money from the Canadian crypto king to recoup their losses. But there is no confirmation because their real identity is actually not known.

The second point concerns the ransom payment.

The ransom demanded from the Canadian crypto king

It is not known whether it has already been paid, or possibly to whom it was paid. Nor is it clear who would have financed that eventual payment.

However, the very fact that, months after the kidnapping, the event was publicly revealed by including its story in the documents submitted to the court suggests that the story might have come to an end.

Indeed, his release would have come on the promise that he would not inform law enforcement, or else he would be treated even worse. At this point, it is safe to imagine that Pleterski may no longer be afraid of these threats, since the incident has now been revealed to law enforcement as well, and the reason may also be that the ransom has been paid.

Considering his personality though, it is also legitimate to have doubts about this story, especially in case a million-dollar ransom was actually paid. In the event that it had actually occurred, who would have actually paid it?

If Pleterski had put up the money, it would mean that he had funds hidden from the bankruptcy court. It should not be forgotten that the story was told by his father, whose credibility is obviously open to doubt.

If he had asked someone else instead, it is valid to wonder to whom it would have been handed over in case the payment had been made. Indeed, given Pleterski’s past, it is not possible to rule out a priori that the kidnapping story was a lie, perhaps artfully created just so that he could ask for and collect more money.

Hence, this story is still unclear, and perhaps even treads water on all sides.

When a person bases his entire career on artfully created lies just to convince other people to give him de facto money, it becomes inevitable to doubt everything he says, or makes relatives and friends say.

Especially in cases where there are still large sums of money at stake that someone has been persuaded to hand over, one way or another.