‘Crypto King’ admits $300M account never existed in audio recording played at trial

In a three-hour recording played in court, Aiden Ploturski admits to three investors and a lawyer that his $300 million trading account never existed. Court heard just weeks before, Ploturski had been sharing this screenshot and a video of the account to concerned investors. The $300 million, it never existed, you said? It never existed. But how was that shown to us on a screen on a piece of paper? Was that photoshopped or was that documented? the account was that we saw that account never existed investor and retired police officer Chris Wynne was at the meeting which was recorded in June of 2022 he testified as the last crown witness and told the court he invested 450,000 and got back 330,000 court heard during the meeting Ploturski said he owes investors between 25 and 30 million dollars the group discussed how to pay them back while protecting Ploturski. The idea? Ploturski liquidates his assets. The money goes into a corporation controlled by investors. Then Ploturski makes supervised trades to bring in enough money to make all the investors whole. But at times the meeting got tense. I'm done. You lied to me. You f***ing sent me a picture of 300 f***ing million. Sell a million bucks. Jail, long time. We're gonna have fun in there. This is gonna be one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in f***ing Ontario. Ploturski later saying, if I had malicious intent with any of this, I wouldn't be sitting in front of you guys. I'd be on a f***ing plane getting out of here right now. I could have been gone long, a long f***ing time ago, but I'm sitting here trying to make it right. Everybody's f***ing leaning on me. Court previously heard Pluterski took in more than 36.3 million from investors but didn't transfer any of that money to the trading platform listed in the contracts investors signed. Banking records show he paid out investors 16.1 million dollars but spent even more of the money on a lavish lifestyle for himself. Pluterski was initially charged with fraud and money laundering but as the crown closed its case the money laundering charge was withdrawn. Pluterski is representing himself and told the court he's decided not to call any evidence, including testifying in his own defense. Closing arguments are next. Angelina King, CBC News, Toronto.