Colin Murphy, one of the self-anointed “Crypto King” Aiden Pleterski’s associates, surrendered over $1 million worth of bank drafts that were owed to Pleterski as a result of a civil warrant, according to CBC News.
CBC added that the trustee reports from Pleterski’s proceedings explain that Murphy is one of the five original members of Pleterski’s entourage and helped raise money for his investment campaign.
Pleterski is from Whitby, Ontario.
Two investors allege that they’ve lost $270,000 they invested through Murphy and have started to take legal action, which now includes freezing orders and a court order that provides a party with the right to search the premises and seize evidence in the risk that a defendant may try to destroy it, to try and get their money back.
Fraud lawyer Norman Groot used these orders to search different locations where Murphy may have had a connection and any evidence related to the case.
As well, Murphy refused to hand over his iPhone to the courts and then restored his phone to delete data that may have been stored on the device. An Ontario Superior Court Judge found Murphy in contempt of court for these actions.
“[Murphy] breached the court order to turn over one of his iPhones to us, and when he did turn it over, the data on that phone had been deleted,” said Groot to CBC.
“I’ve been keeping stuff to give to somebody,” said Murphy. “I released all that stuff to [Groot] but apparently I’m still some multi f–king millionaire.”
Murphy’s lawyer, Sukanta Saha, denied all the allegations against Murphy.
“My client takes the position that he is just as much a victim of Mr. Pleterski’s misdeeds as anyone else and this will be shown in the robust defence that will be put forward by Mr. Murphy in due course,” Saha told CBC.
Murphy must attend an examination under oath and must also surrender pieces of financial information dating back to 2020 such as banking records, credit card statements, cryptocurrency accounts, and all the funds he received and transferred from the investors and Pleterski.
Last September, self-described “Crypto King” Pleterski had $2 million in assets seized, including luxury cars, as investors tried to recoup millions given to him and his company.
