Aiden Pleterski - guilty of fraud

Aiden Pleterski has been found quilty of fraud. "Mr. Pleterski was no 'Crypto King.' Far from it. As it turns out he was no king at all. He was a thief. A thief who stole investor money and used it as he pleased. A thief who stole investor money using calculated lies," Crown prosecutor Akshay Aurora told the jury. "As you've seen, he burned through that money. Pleterski took more than $36 million from investors for trading, but never put a cent of it into the trading platform FXChoice on their contracts. Instead, the Crown provided financial records at trial showing Pleterski spent $16.3 million of it on himself and gave another $16.1 million back to investors as returns. Self described ‘crypto king’ Aiden Pleterski, 25, had just landed in Melbourne 18 months ago. He was on a months-long travel spree he prolifically posted about. Despite bankruptcy proceedings tied to his $40m fraud, he was partying in Los Angeles for Halloween, posting poolside from Miami, and travelling to London for a pro fight.

Pleterski hadn't been criminally charged. He spends hours live streaming, including more than five hours building and destroying a Lego Titanic.

Akil Heywood and 3 others are charged with kidnapping Pleterski for ransom. Pleterski owes $40m to dum dums. They petitioned Pleterski into bankruptcy. “I can assure you I am innocent,” Heywood says. He lost $740k to Pleterski. Heywood was involved in Pleterski’s bankruptcy proceedings and had access to documents. 5 people involved in the case were voted to represent Pleterski’s investors. Heywood was one of them. Heywood is alleged to have threatened the bankruptcy trustee to pay him $2m in crypto.