'I don't know how he can live with himself': Victim slams crypto 'prodigy' who ... trends now
A grandmother who lost tens of thousands of dollars that she gave to a Canadian video game geek to invest in cryptocurrency on her behalf has told of her devastation at losing her savings.
Aiden Pleterski, 23, is currently battling bankruptcy proceedings.
He is accused of taking the millions invested in him by speculators and spending 98 percent of the funds on his lavish lifestyle, which saw him jet around the world; buy numerous properties; and keep a garage of supercars including a Lamborghini, McLaren and BMWs.
Pleterski, confronted about why he continued to take money from investors even when he knew that he couldn't repay his existing clients, told investigators it was because he 'was a 20-something-year-old kid,' CBC News reported
Pleterski has not been arrested - and in December claimed that he was kidnapped, held for three days, and tortured before being dumped.
Aiden Pleterski drove at least 10 different sports cars, including a rare McLaren Senna, purchased for over $1 million in September 2021
Diane Moore, 65, invested money intended for her grandchildren's education with Pleterski. She has lost CA $50,000 ($36,000)
One of Pleterski's alleged victims, Diane Moore, 65, from Clarington, Ontario, said she invested CA $60,000 ($43,700) after meeting Pleterski through a friend she had known for many years.
The money was intended for her grandchildren's education, but she lost all but CA $10,000 ($7,300).
'The whole thing was based on trust,' she told CBC News last year.
'What Aiden has done, I think, is awful — and I don't know how he can live with himself.'
Moore said she was told Pleterski would take 30 percent of any profit, and he guaranteed her original deposit was safe.
'I don't know if he was ever really trading,' Moore said.
'Or was this his plan and it was just the story to get me in along with other people?'
A bankruptcy trustee said the impact of the alleged fraud was devastating.
'Some of the stories of the impact that the losses caused by Pleterski's alleged actions have on creditors are heartbreaking,' wrote Rob Stelzer, a senior vice-president with Grant Thornton.
Pleterski was in trouble even before his scheme collapsed.
Domestic violence charges were filed against him in Florida on June 9, 2021, when a former girlfriend accused him of attacking her, CTV News reported.
Pleterski is seen in a June 2021 mugshot, after he was charged with domestic violence in Florida. The charges were dropped two weeks later
She had confronted him about photos he had posted to Instagram, and the pair began arguing - a verbal disagreement which she said turned physical.
'The suspect intentionally grabbed the front of the victim's shirt with both hands and began to yell at her. This intentional violence was against the victim's will,' wrote the deputy who arrived at the house in Davenport, south of Orlando.
She tried to leave, the charging documents state, but he repeatedly blocked the door.
'The victim stated she did not feel free to leave during this time,' the affidavit reads.
Charges were dropped by prosecutors two weeks later, on June 22.
A little over a year later, Pleterski's business facade would also come crashing down.
A Toronto realtor, Sacha Singh, filed court documents requesting the immediate freezing of Pleterski's accounts - something the court agreed on July 7, 2022.
Singh invested CA $4.56 million ($3.32 million) with Pleterski between April 2021 and January 2022, after being introduced by a friend.
In February 2022, Singh requested a withdrawal of some of the money, but Pleterski was unable to hand it over.
Toronto realtor Sacha Singh invested CA $4.56 million ($3.3m) with Pleterski, and took legal action to try and get it back - which sparked Pleterski's downfall
Pleterski, 24, is currently going through bankruptcy proceedings as authorities in Canada desperately try to recover the $29 million he allegedly scammed
Singh grew increasingly concerned, and began investigating - learning, along with the friend that introduced them, that Pleterski was lying about some of the bank accounts he claimed to have, and was trying to sell some of his luxury cars.
Singh succeeded in having Pleterski's accounts frozen, and a month later the floodgates opened as other investors realized they had also been duped.
In August, investors questioned Pleterski for five hours, according to the meeting's minutes obtained by CBC News.
When asked why he continued to invest money when he knew he couldn't repay his current investors, Pleterski told the meeting he 'was a 20-something-year-old kid.'
Pleterski is now believed to have paid for favorable coverage in obscure online news outlets, which bolstered his story of self-made success.
As the authorities try to recoup some of the cash, Pleterski's father claimed his son was kidnapped in the middle of the night in December and held for three days.
He was supposedly released after a few days - but was told he needed to come up with the money quickly, or else suffer further consequences.
One of the few calls he was allowed to make was to his landlord, who testified that Pleterski called begging him for the millions in ransom payments.
'I said, 'There's absolutely nothing that I can do.'
No suspects have been revealed in the kidnapping and Toronto police did not provide any information on the suspected kidnapper or if any arrests were made.
Pleterski's parents said they believed their son was operating a
