Crypto King’s alleged kidnappers’ trial hears call Aiden Pleterski made to landlord asking for $3M

The jury trial for three men accused of kidnapping and extorting the self-described “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterski began Tuesday in Toronto with testimony from his former landlord.

“I’m on a phone call right now and I believe this person is being held, kidnapped,” says Sandeep Gupta to an emergency call taker in a recording of a 911 call played in Ontario Superior Court. 

“He’s not a friend; he was a renter. I don’t know if you’ve heard on the news — the Crypto King?”

Akil Heywood, Alfredo Paladino and Rakeem Henry are all charged with allegedly kidnapping and extorting Pleterski over the course of three days in early December 2022. 

Paladino and Henry are also charged with firearms offences, the aggravated assault of Pleterski, assaulting him with a weapon, and assault causing bodily harm over that same period. 

In her opening statement to the jury, Crown prosecutor Julia De Vuono alleged the kidnapping was a result of a “dispute over money,” and that Heywood invested and lost a significant amount with Pleterski, later playing a key role in Pleterski’s bankruptcy proceeding. She also alleged Heywood was the “driving force” behind the plan to kidnap Pleterski.

Pleterski, 27, was convicted of fraud last month, but has yet to be sentenced.

Three men are standing trial for the alleged kidnapping and extortion of Aiden Pleterski in December 2022. (aiden.ptrs/Instagram)

The Crown said prosecution evidence would show another man, Deren Akyeam-Pong, who is not part of the trial, was the lead kidnapper and alleged Paladino and Henry carried out the kidnapping alongside him. 

Between the initial alleged kidnapping on Dec. 5, and Pleterski’s release on Dec. 8, De Vuono said Pleterski was waterboarded, burned with cigarettes, beaten with weapons and had a gun fired beside his head twice. 

Gupta testified Pleterski called him several times before he finally answered after midnight, in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2022. During the call with Pleterski, Gupta said, he also called 911 on his wife’s phone and maintained conversations with both Pleterski and the 911 operator on speaker phone, so the 911 call recorded what he was saying. 

Throughout the call, Pleterski makes several pleas to Gupta to get him millions of dollars. 

“I need my money, I need $2 [million] to $3 million, as soon as you can, so I can pay these guys,” he says.

Gupta tries to get information about where Pleterski is throughout the call, and explains that it’s not possible to get that amount of money very quickly. 

His family business had a rent-to-own agreement with Pleterski for a Burlington, Ont., home that Gupta said was worth about $10 million in 2022. But he testified that Pleterski stopped making rent payments in April 2022 and never completed the purchase.

The court is expected to hear another phone call recording this afternoon, in which Gupta testified he made a plan to meet up with Pleterski at a Tim Hortons, at the direction of police, to give him money.