A dental hygienist with only “minimal” investing knowledge became the latest investor to testify at the “Crypto King” fraud trial, which has entered its second week.
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which → become → week
Jannel Finn-Saunders on Tuesday described a now‑familiar pattern.
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Saunders → describe → pattern
She and her husband met Aiden Pleterski in his car in a Shoppers Drug Mart parking lot in Ajax in the spring of 2021.
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She → meet → 2021
He said he was licensed — she wasn’t sure of the details — and that he invested money in foreign currency and would take a 30 per cent cut of any profits.
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he → say → profits
She doesn’t recall any discussion about risk, though other investors have testified they were told their principal amount was guaranteed to be safe.
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amount → recall → risk
She remembers hearing him say she could withdraw her money any time.
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she → remember → money
Pleterski, 27, has pleaded not guilty to defrauding investors and money laundering.
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Pleterski → plead → investors
Finn-Saunders said she signed a document, and handed over $10,000 in cash, and was soon receiving WhatsApp updates showing their investment supposedly growing week after week.
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investment → say → week
Based on these updates, “I thought it was doing well,” and after a few months the couple deposited another $20,000 that they were saving for their kids and a house.
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they → base → kids
That fall, Finn-Saunders received a message saying the balance on the account had swollen to $84,727.66.
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balance → receive → 84,727.66
She sent him a message saying she wanted to invest more money — messages that also received no response.
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that → send → response
However, in the winter and spring of 2022 she was demanding the return of their initial investment.
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she → demand → investment
“When are (we) getting our money.
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we → get → money
Remember it’s our kids money we invested,” she wrote on May 22, 2022.
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she → remember → May
But she told court she kept getting “the runaround,” and excuses such as the markets are down, he’s “not in the right head space.”
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he → tell → space
“After that it just went cold turkey,” she told the jury.
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she → go → jury
On May 31, 2022, Pleterski sent Finn-Saunders a message saying he was returning all client investments, “due to the issues I’ve been having,” but that he would pay her back, “out of my own pocket.”
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he → send → pocket
“Times are very, very tough for me because I owe a lot of people and I’m just getting by right now but I’m using my trading skills to trade up a new fund to be able to pay all clients their money back,” he wrote.
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he → owe → money
However, prosecutors Scott Patterson and Akshay Aurora allege Pleterski blew investor cash on credit card bills, private-jet travel, luxurious cars and paying off other investors.
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Pleterski → allege → investors
Still, months passed and nothing.
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months → pass → ?
“I’m deeply saddened how my trust has broken,” she wrote in one of her final messages to Pleterski.
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she → sadden → Pleterski
She never received anything back.
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She → receive → anything
Pleterski, who is representing himself, once again declined to cross examine the witness.
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who → represent → witness
The jury also heard Tuesday from Det.-Const. Daniel Ross of Durham Regional Police’s cybercrime unit.
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jury → hear → unit
His testimony underscored how easily numbers on a screen can be manipulated, reinforcing the Crown’s position that the digital updates and screenshots investors relied on were not what they appeared to be.
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they → underscore → position
Ross demonstrated how anyone can alter figures on a webpage using built‑in “Inspect” tools, the same method the Crown alleges Pleterski used in a video circulated to investors showing a fabricated $311‑million trading account.
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Pleterski → demonstrate → account
The officer walked jurors through changing the price of a pair of shoes on Nike’s website from $190 to $190,000 with a few keystrokes, explaining that such edits exist only locally on the user’s computer and disappear once the page is refreshed.
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page → walk → computer
The trial in front of Superior Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru continues Wednesday.
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trial → continue → Nakatsuru
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