Finding the Crypto King’s treasures has turned out to be no easy feat.
Bankruptcy trustees say 25-year-old Aiden Pleterski continues to try to conceal some of his assets, including using loyalty points and virtual worlds.
He also continues to make money, including, through his latest business venture: OnlyFans account management.
Pleterski, the 25-year-old self-proclaimed Crypto King from Whitby, has been accused of having a “catch me if you can” attitude by authorities investigating his financial activities. He continues to refuse to hand over information even as bankruptcy trustees reveal more details about where he allegedly continues to attempt to hide his assets.
Pleterski is scheduled to appear in bankruptcy proceedings Wednesday, where lawyers from Grant Thornton, the accounting firm appointed as trustees, will continue to argue against the discharge of his bankruptcy on several grounds, including that he has not fully complied with the requirements to disclose his sources of income, accounts and assets.
“The failure of (Pleterski) to comply and meaningfully co-operate with the Trustee throughout his bankruptcy is well documented,” wrote lawyers Leanne Williams and Rebekah O’Hare in a filing submitted July 12.
“Pleterski’s pattern of conduct led the Trustee to seek a contempt order against him on two occasions.”
Pleterski allegedly defrauded investors of $40 million, saying he would invest their money in cryptocurrency. He is alleged to have spent 38 per cent of it on sports cars and houses for his friends and family and other luxury goods, while only actually investing 1.6 per cent of the money he received. In August 2022, he declared bankruptcy, which started off the proceedings during which investigators have closely scrutinized his finances in hopes of getting some of his creditors their money back.
In May, he was also charged by Peel Police with fraud over $5,000 and laundering the proceeds of crime. He was released on bail with his parents putting up a $100,000 surety that he will adhere to his bail conditions, which include surrendering his passport, not contacting investors and he’s also restricted from making any social media posts involving financial matters.
None of the allegations against Pleterski have been tested in court. He is next scheduled to appear in court on the criminal matters in September.
Pleterski’s investors and investigators have grown accustomed to monitoring his social media posts, where after declaring bankruptcy, he seemingly continued to live a lavish lifestyle, travelling around the world, staying in $1,000-a-night hotels in Europe and partying with social media influencers, which he documented on his Instagram and TikTok accounts.
The new documents include a filing from the owners of GTA Exotics, a luxury car business with locations in Mississauga and Hamilton, which Pleterski frequented as a customer and fostered a relationship with, which eventually allegedly convinced them to invest $1 million with him. Many investors have cited Pleterski’s lavish lifestyle and expensive sports cars as a reason they thought he was a successful investor.
His social media activity raised the ire of the bankruptcy trustees, and at previous hearings in early June, Pleterski admitted in documents that he used Scene+ loyalty points to pay for the hotel stays and flights. As well, trustees believe that Pleterski had not revealed other potential sources of income, including money from selling virtual goods — items in video games that have real world monetary value to other players — on the Steam video game platform, with items from the game, Counterstrike: Global Offensive.
In the latest round of documents leading up to this week’s hearing, Pleterski has been ordered to provide access to several accounts, and has now provided some access and passwords for some of his accounts, but not all of them. He provided the login info for a Binance crypto trading account, which he moved at least $2,734,506 to in 2021, but the trustees said they haven’t been able to access it using the password that was provided.
The video game company Valve, which operates the Steam gaming platform, was given a court order to provide information on his accounts, and showed he is believed to have traded more than $430,000 worth of Steam Skins — cosmetic items that change how weapons look in the game — with a provided chart listing the items with some individual Skins being ascribed a value over $10,000 each, since he declared bankruptcy.
Pleterski has said he has two Steam accounts, but trustees believe he has four, but has not provided login access to any of them.
Initially, in June, Pleterski argued they had no value outside of the game.
“I have already answered all your questions based on the cs related stuff which is a conversation that keeps going in a circle because I have given you the Steam accounts, I had previously used to play video games on,” wrote Pleterski, in an email answering questions about the accounts. “This is a waste of time, and resources because as both of us previously agreed on, it is against TOS (terms of service) to liquidate items outside of Steam. Therefore, making the liquidation of any Steam item outside of Steam illegal in nature.”
While his travel came under scrutiny, he provided receipts from his points redemption for flights and a hotel in the June filing, but now he also refused to give trustees access to the balance of his Scene+ points card.
“I was also not aware that the Scene points needed to be reported as I understand that they are non-transferable and have no cash value. Had you asked me to report them to you, I certainly would have, but your recent email is the first suggestion that I needed to make you aware of them,” wrote Pleterski in the early June filing.
As well, investigators found that while he claimed he had no sources of revenue since bankruptcy, he had two sources of previously undisclosed income. Pleterski earned live stream revenue of at least $703.12 in the fall of 2023.
Durham Police also informed the trustees that Pleterski has been providing “account management services” to clients on OnlyFans. OnlyFans is a subscription-based site where users can post images and videos and set a monthly fee for fans to pay. It is primarily used by sex workers, but artists and musicians also use the site. According to account information provided by CIBC, it was confirmed he was making undisclosed revenue, and the trustee says that from April to June of 2024, Pleterski made $6,000 from his OnlyFans clients.
The trustee is asking that Pleterski’s bankruptcy not be discharged until a number of conditions are met, including paying back $4,539,803, as well as an amount equalling 30 per cent of proven claims in the estate and providing all of the login information for all his accounts among other requirements.
Efforts by the Star to reach Pleterski and his legal representation were not successful by publication time.
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