A forensic accountant who took the stand at Toronto's Superior Court on Friday told the court that spending attributable solely to Aiden Pleterski's personal use consumed nearly half of the $36.3 million his investors had placed under his management — a proportion that aligned closely with the total amount paid back to those investors as supposed profits over the 2020-to-2022 period.

Testimony from an Ontario Securities Commission investigator, Albert Ciorma, placed before the court a finding that no portion of the money Pleterski collected from investors had ever been transferred to FXChoice — the trading platform that investor contracts identified as the vehicle through which he was to manage their funds. Transfers to other foreign exchange and cryptocurrency platforms totalled approximately $113,000 in all.

According to the forensic audit commissioned by Ciorma, Pleterski directed roughly $5.6 million toward high-end vehicles, put approximately $4.9 million against credit card balances, allocated around $870,000 to travel expenses including private jet use, set aside about $598,000 for security services, and transferred nearly $3.7 million to his parents. A credit card served as the vehicle for an additional $609,000 drawn out in cash advances. When those line items are added together, the combined figure reaches just over $16.3 million.

Ciorma's account indicates that a further $16.1 million drawn from those same incoming funds was distributed by Pleterski back to investors.

Charges of fraud exceeding $5,000 and money laundering were entered as not guilty by the defendant, who is 27 years old. Formal charges against Pleterski came down in May 2024, following a joint probe conducted by the OSC and Durham Regional Police.

Prosecutors, in arguments put forward from the opening of Pleterski's jury trial the week prior, contend that he promised investors their funds would be traded and their capital protected, yet the money was never placed in any market — with court documents pointing instead to personal expenditures as the destination for those assets. On Friday, Ciorma took the stand and delivered the most detailed account placed before the court in support of that strand of the prosecution's argument.

At an earlier point in the proceedings, roughly ten investors took the stand and told the court they had handed Pleterski a combined total exceeding $6 million. Each of them recounted a comparable experience: handing Pleterski money to put toward foreign exchange trading — and, in a number of instances, cryptocurrency — with returns quoted at somewhere between two and ten per cent per week. Pleterski kept them informed of those returns by way of text messages. A large portion of those involved reported receiving no reimbursement whatsoever.

During a spring 2021 review, Patterson walked the court through the extensive financial documentation Ciorma had assembled on Pleterski's accounts, noting that the records showed a recurring pattern of deposits followed by credit card expenditures. Documentation of the transactions revealed that substantial sums belonging to investors passed through Pleterski's accounts before being directed toward personal expenditures — among them credit card balances, automobiles, hotel stays, designer apparel, and jewellery.

Among the additional line items, a high-end property rental in Miami during October 2021 drew over $84,000, while a Toronto baseball organisation received $95,200 the following April.

During proceedings, a pair of investors who had given earlier testimony described footage they had viewed of Pleterski's FXChoice account, which displayed a balance of $311 million at some point in the spring of 2022. Separately, testimony before the court addressed Mitchell Learning accessing Pleterski's email account and discovering that a specific FXChoice account had been closed.

During his testimony, Ciorma recounted that Pleterski had told him investor funds were gone and that incoming money from new investors was being used to pay out existing ones. When Patterson asked the forensic accountant whether the FXChoice accounts under review had held $311 million, Ciorma replied that no such figure appeared — only what had already been presented in court that day.

On Monday, the forensic accountant is scheduled to return to the stand as proceedings in the Pleterski case continue.