Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander bought this six-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot house on Lake Ontario for just over C$8.4 million (approximately $6.1 million) ‘s house was supposed to be a dream home.
But in May, two days after Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, moved into the house near Toronto with his partner, it turned into a nightmare, according to a lawsuit seeking to cancel the sale. A menacing visitor shows up looking for the former house. Residents. The couple left the next day and have not returned.
The home of this young NBA player, The property listing is described as The “elegant resort-style estate” was once the home of self-proclaimed “King of Cryptocurrency” Aiden Pleterski, who declared bankruptcy in 2022 while owing nearly $1,300 to more than 150 investment clients. million Canadian dollars.
Court records show the house received a steady stream of angry visitors Attempts were made to speak to Mr. Pletski while he lived there and after he moved out.
In December last year, court documents showed that Mr. Pletsky was kidnapped. He was beaten and tortured by an aggrieved investor and four other men for three days.
Testimony in the bankruptcy case showed that Mr. Pletsky had a security guard to fend off angry investors and was eventually moved out of the house for his own safety. Another resident also fled fearing for his safety after angry visitors appeared every day. .
A holding company owned by Gilgeous-Alexander is now asking the court to quash the purchase of a Burlington, Ont., home because the seller failed to disclose its ties to Mr. Pletski and potential security threats to the home.
Citing the kidnapping, the holding company said in the filing that the people present at the upscale residence “were not unwarranted threats.”
The property’s former owner, the head of a Toronto real estate company whose assets included condos, retirement homes and hotels, withheld information about the shocking visitors from potential buyers because “anyone who could afford to spend more than $8 million would Luxury home buyers will value privacy and would not under any circumstances want any part of the property where there has been the threat of visiting the past two occupants.”
Gilgeous-Alexander, through his attorney, declined to comment.
Halton Regional Police, which polices Burlington, declined to provide more information and declined to say whether Pletski was the target of a criminal investigation.
The bankruptcy trustee’s banking analysis showed that Mr. Pletsky was not the investment prodigy that many investors believed him to be.
The investigation found that only 1.6% of the C$41.6 million he took in was actually invested. He used about 38% of the money to repay some clients’ redemptions (so-called investment gains) and put about the same percentage into private investments. Jet travel, a fleet of limousines, watches (one worth more than $300,000) and the rental of a Burlington home.
The trustee concluded that “Pletsky’s lavish lifestyle was funded by his investors” and “ultimately contributed to his bankruptcy.”
Mr. Pletsky said in a sworn interview with the trustee’s attorney in 2022 He first became interested in cryptocurrencies after using them to purchase video games and began trading in high school.
He started off with money from his family and a part-time job as a baseball umpire. He says his knowledge of trading and financial markets comes from “YouTube videos, Google, quick Google searches.”
Pletsky said the company operated out of his personal bank account until December 2021, when he set up his own company at the suggestion of a former landlord.
He said the only records he kept started with text messages and WhatsApp messages he had with clients. While Pletsky did create spreadsheets for a handful of clients in need, he acknowledged that the return on investment shown in those spreadsheets was “just a ballpark figure.” He came to this conclusion after checking his bank account.
The home Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander purchased is halfway between Toronto, where he was born, and Hamilton, Ont., where he grew up. The home is fully equipped with amenities including a gym, three-car garage and home theatre. The bedrooms are reached by an elevator and offer sweeping views of the lake, including the hotel’s private dock.
Gilgeous-Alexander said in the lawsuit that two days after he moved in, a man appeared to ask to see someone he had never heard of — Mr. Pletsky. When told there was no one with that name there, the uninvited guest chose not to leave; The visitor looked around the house and then sat in his car in the driveway.
Hailey Summers, a partner of Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander, Called the police non-emergency line and was told the agency had “received several reports of threats to property, including threats to burn down the home,” according to the lawsuit.
In the spring of 2021, Mr. Pletsky agreed to lease the Burlington house from a company controlled by Ray Gupta, who also controls Toronto-based Sunray Group real estate holdings company.
But when Mr. Pletski’s trading business began to collapse, he stopped paying his $45,000-a-month rent and moved to a Sunray-owned hotel where he didn’t have to pay rent.
In response to Gilgeous-Alexander’s complaint, Gupta’s company downplayed the frequency and potential dangers of unwanted visitors and argued that it had no obligation to disclose the continued presence of unwanted visitors.
“Despite Aiden’s abduction, anyone visiting the property to inquire about its former occupants will be treated as a completely normal incident,” the statement said.
But in a sworn interview in Pletsky’s bankruptcy case, Ray’s son Sandeep Gupta, who handles all Pletsky’s affairs, painted a different picture.
“Every day people come to the house looking for Aiden,” Mr Gupta said.
He said the unwanted visits continued when a Sunray employee moved in to keep the furnished home, who asked for a security guard. “His wife refused to stay there,” Mr Gupta said. “This is a very bad situation.”