A Chatham, Ont. mother is spearheading a class action lawsuit alleging a company that collected $14 million in investments from members of her community was actually a Ponzi scheme that fed nearly a third of its funds to Ontario’s self-described ‘crypto king’ Aiden Pleterski.
Speaking out for the first time, the whistleblower – former Banknote employee Brock Tedford – told CTV News Toronto he believes his boss and close friend, Ryan Rumble, saw Pleterski “getting away” with allegedly exploiting investors and “decided to do the same thing.” Excited about the prospect of making quick profits, Rumble decided to create Banknote with two other directors in 2021 to operate as a “feeder fund” for Pleterski, sending him nearly $4 million, while engaging in his own trading with investor’s money, according to the court documents.
The mother said she was hesitant about Banknote at first, but caved, making a “very significant” investment, after friends and family raved about their returns.In early 2022, when Tedford was still new in his role as an analyst at Banknote, he said he flagged what he interpreted as an error to Rumble.
“I wanted to turn this in, but at that point I couldn’t just say, ‘Hey this was happening,’ so I pretty much had to go in and sit with this guy everyday for months,” he said.Around the same time Tedford’s suspicions began to arise, in early 2022, Banknote stopped accepting new investments due to “cash flow problems.” According to court documents, the problems stemmed from a failure on Pleterski’s part to return funds.
With the whistleblower complaint pending, Groot filed a motion on Tuesday to further extend a court injunction granted in May, which would not only freeze Banknote’s assets, but Rumble’s too.
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Source: CTVToronto - 🏆 9. / 84 Read more »