Aiden Pleterski, the self-styled Crypto King accused in Ontario of defrauding investors out of tens of millions of dollars, has pleaded guilty in a case of intimate partner violence.
Court records reviewed by CBC News show Pleterski, 26, pleaded guilty on July 29 to charges of assault, harassment and entering a dwelling to commit an offence.
According to a charge sheet, the charges stem from a series of incidents that occurred at a home in Vaughan over a three-day span in early January. The female victim’s name is covered by a court-ordered publication ban.
York Regional Police previously said Pleterski was placed in custody after surrendering himself at a police station. “We can only provide very limited information, [to] protect the victim,” Const. James Dickson said at the time.
Investigators also laid four other charges against Pleterski in January — including forcible confinement, uttering threats and a second count of assault — with the same woman listed as the victim.
A spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General said prosecutors have not withdrawn the four additional charges.
Pleterski’s lawyer, Cosmo Galluzzo, did not respond to requests for comment.
Pleterski has not yet been sentenced in the case, which is scheduled to return to the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket in late November.
Pleterski was previously granted bail in the case after his parents pledged $7,500. He was ordered not to have any contact with the complainant and to remain at his parents’ home in Whitby every night.
Last year, Durham Regional Police charged Pleterski with fraud and money laundering in what the agency’s chief described as the “largest fraud investigation” the region had ever seen.
CBC Toronto has reported extensively on Pleterski since the summer of 2022, when he was forced into bankruptcy. His investors 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 bankruptcy proceedings.
Police allege Pleterski solicited funds from investors, promising massive profits and guaranteeing no losses from their original investment.
Police outline investigation and arrest of Ontario’s ‘Crypto King’
A 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 a lakefront mansion.
Pleterski has denied wrongdoing in the fraud case. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.
The fraud case is set to go to trial in Superior Court in Toronto in October 2026.
