MANDEL: Frantic Ontario 'Crypto King' called landlord for $3 million to pay alleged kidnappers
· Toronto Sun
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By the sound of his desperate voice and demands for $3 million “right now,” his landlord suspected self-anointed Crypto King Aiden Pleterski ‘s personal safety concerns had finally been realized and he’d been kidnapped by furious investors.
“They know I stole the money. They know everything,” Pleterski told him on that phone call in the early hours of Dec. 5, 2022.
“I could tell he was under distress,” said Sandeep Gupta, whose family business owned the $10-million Burlington home that Pleterski could no longer afford to lease-to-own at about $45,000 a month. “It sounded like individuals were coaching Aiden on what to say.”
So Gupta called 911.
“When somebody calls you in a possibly life-or-death situation, I didn’t want to hang up the phone,” he said.
Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2022
In the winter of 2022, Pleterski’s Ponzi scheme had collapsed and a defrauded investor is accused of having the failed boy wonder kidnapped in Toronto, waterboarded and threatened with death unless he came up with his cash.
Akil Heywood, the alleged 42-year-old mastermind of the scheme, and accused gun-toting kidnappers Alfredo Paladino and Rakeem Henry have pleaded not guilty. The star witness at their trial is slated to be alleged victim, Pleterski, 27 — who was convicted a few weeks ago of defrauding millions from investors. The Crown assured the jury that they will also see surveillance video and cellphone records to prove their case.
“The evidence will show that a dispute over money became a violent kidnapping carried out over three days across southern Ontario,” Crown attorney Julia De Vuono told jurors in her opening address . “During that time, Mr. Pleterski was abducted, confined, assaulted, and held while his captors attempted to obtain money from him. The violence and threats allegedly included the following: waterboarding, burning him with cigarettes, cutting his skin, repeated assaults including punching, pistol-whipping, and beating with weapons.
“There were two firearm discharges near his head. Threats of mutilation to fingers and limbs. Constant threats to kill him and harm his family. Confinement with bags over his head and constraints on his arms. He was also threatened with fentanyl injection and death.”
De Vuono alleged Heywood was the “driving force” behind the violent abduction and in the days leading up to the kidnapping, he’d repeatedly confronted Pleterski and threatened him at a Toronto nightclub in a bid to get his money back.
His landlord knew Pleterski was in financial trouble but insisted he had no idea he’d been running a failing Ponzi scheme.
As the Crown’s first witness, Gupta, the president of Sunray Group of Hotels, said Pleterski blamed the crypto crash at the time for falling behind in his payments for the Burlington mansion. When he went to the house to arrange taking his $1 million McLaren Senna as collateral, Gupta said he was surprised to see security outside. “That put some red flags for us,” he said.
In June 2022, for his safety and that of his expensive asset, Gupta said he suggested Pleterski move into one of his company’s Horseshoe Valley-area condos instead.
During cross-examination, Heywood’s lawyer Hussein Aly went on the attack and accused Gupta of being Pleterski’s “partner in crime” — did he know his tenant had stolen $30-$40 million from hard-working people, costing them marriages, lifesavings and retirement?
“If we knew he was a fraudster we wouldn’t have let him live there from the beginning,” the executive calmly insisted.
Didn’t he later tell police that he’d been Pleterski’s mentor?
‘I was a sounding board for him’
“I was a sounding board for him,” he explained. “Mentor was the wrong choice of words.”
Gupta did admit paying for Pleterski’s dental veneers in exchange for gold and to buying a $12,000 Rolex and an Audi from him through the bankruptcy trustee. But he denied “hiding” Pleterski or his exotic cars from creditors.
“You’re doing all these things for Mr. Pleterski and you’re not in on the scheme,” the lawyer scoffed. “You knew this kid was shady … you knew ‘I can put a lot of this money in my pocket.'”
“No, that’s not true,” the businessman said.
Gupta later sold the Burlington mansion to NBA star Shae Gilgeous-Alexander for $8.5 million but was later successfully sued because Pleterski’s angry investors kept turning up at the home.
“So the conclusion is knowingly or unknowingly, Sandeep Gupta provided support for one of Canada’s most infamous fraudsters?” the lawyer charged.
“Yeah, as you said, it’s knowingly or unknowingly — (it was) unknowingly.”
The trial continues Thursday.