Ontario's Crypto King will likely remain bankrupt until after criminal charges are resolved
Judge dismissed application to discharge Aiden Pleterski from nearly 2-year-long bankruptcy
Ontario's self-described Crypto King will likely remain bankrupt until criminal fraud and money laundering charges are resolved against the 25-year-old.
Justice William Black dismissed Aiden Pleterski's application for a discharge from his nearly two-year-long bankruptcy in a ruling released Thursday.
"Mr. Pleterski's conduct warrants an emphasis on public protection and accountability," wrote the Ontario Superior Court judge.
"Refusing a discharge absolutely at this stage, pending the result of the criminal prosecution, would allow this court to take into account, in fashioning an appropriate remedy at that point, the outcome of the criminal proceedings."
Two months ago, Pleterski was charged with fraud and money laundering following an 18-month joint investigation between Durham Regional Police and the Ontario Securities Commission.
Police allege Pleterski solicited funds from investors, promising massive profits and guaranteeing no losses from their original investment. None of the charges have been tested in court.
In a bankruptcy discharge hearing Wednesday, lawyers for the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy for creditors, and for Pleterski, agreed that waiting on the outcome of Pleterski's criminal charges would make sense. But they disagreed on whether conditions previously imposed preventing him from applying for, or using, any form of unsecured credit should continue.
Justice Black's decision acknowledged that it might be appropriate to revisit that prohibition at some point, but removing it right now would "cause the public to lose confidence in the bankruptcy regime."
"I would expect Mr. Pleterski to co-operate fully with the Trustee going forward, and to make full disclosure of all relevant facts," said the judge in his decision.
Tanya Walker, a lawyer representing one of the creditors, would like to see Pleterski comply with those instructions.
"I hope this really encourages him to take the steps that the court and investors are asking for, which is, 'Where's the money?'" Walker said.
The judge's ruling comes after a lawyer for the bankruptcy trustee said Pleterski has no remorse for his actions operating a Ponzi scheme and is continuing to cause his investors financial hardship by failing to co-operate with his bankruptcy proceeding, in the hearing Wednesday.
"Mr. Pleterski should be embarrassed and ashamed of his conduct, but he clearly is not, and this is precisely the reason he should not be granted a discharge," said Leanne Williams, counsel for the trustee, accounting firm Grant Thornton.
"He has lied about his assets; he has lied about his income."
Bankruptcy proceedings are administered by a licensed trustee, who is responsible for investigating the finances of a person or business that has gone bankrupt and for administering their estate.
Undisclosed accounts, assets
New court records filed by the trustee ahead of the bankruptcy discharge hearing alleged Pleterski continues to hide income connected to online gaming and other internet services — and has failed to provide any evidence of where millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies ended up.
The trustee claims the 25-year-old sold $430,000 worth of virtual weapons for online games and started managing OnlyFans creators for a 40 per cent cut of their profits while bankrupt. None of those newly discovered funds were disclosed to creditors.
Pleterski did not attend his discharge hearing on Wednesday.
Justice Black's decision acknowledges the "somewhat difficult position" his lawyer, Micheal Simaan, was put in to respond to the new allegations, given he was unable to contact Pleterski "for the last few days."
If Pleterski had been discharged from bankruptcy, the trustee had asked the judge for it to be conditional on him paying back more than $4.5 million in assets and funds it says he hasn't accounted for, and paying back 30 per cent, roughly $9 million, of the money that the bankruptcy proceedings found more than 150 creditors had lost with him.
In a recent affidavit, Pleterski said those conditions would ensure he was punished for the rest of his life "for mostly immature actions ... that had no ill intent."
"Essentially, they want me to remain an undischarged bankrupt for the rest of my life," he said.
CBC Toronto has reported extensively on Pleterski since the summer of 2022, when he was forced into bankruptcy by some of his investors. For nearly two years, they have been trying to track down up to $40 million they gave him to invest in cryptocurrencies and foreign exchanges — although only about $27 million in proven claims were admitted to the bankruptcy proceedings.
The bankruptcy trustee's investigation previously found that Pleterski had invested less than two per cent of the investors' funds while spending nearly $16 million on himself — renting private jets, going on vacations, adding luxury cars to his collection and leasing to buy a lakefront mansion prior to his bankruptcy.
In his affidavit, Pleterski denies that he only invested about two per cent of the investors' funds.
Instead, he says that while investing in cryptocurrency, he issued investor payouts by allowing new investors to take over the position of outgoing ones in his cryptocurrency accounts to avoid paying currency transaction fees.
In court, Williams said Pleterski has provided no evidence of the assignment of funds and said that "paying out investors with new investor funds is the definition of a Ponzi scheme."
Based on his actions, Williams said conditions are needed on any sort of discharge for Pleterski.
"We don't want more victims," she said. "The whole point of this is to prevent more victims."
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