Appeal dismissed on sale of Burlington home once owned by ‘Crypto King’ and NBA superstar

An appeal over the voiding of the sale of a disputed luxury Burlington home once owned by Aiden Pleterski, the self-proclaimed “Crypto King,” has gone in favour of a Canadian NBA player.

Last December, Justice Robert J. Centa ruled that owners of the $8.45-million property, made a “fraudulent misrepresentation” when they sold the home to Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and marketed it as “private and secure.”

In that ruling, Justice Centra ordered those who sold the home to Gilgeous-Alexander to buy it back.

The appeal of that decision to the Court of Appeal for Ontario on Monday (August 12) was dismissed.

Initially, the Hamilton-raised Gilgeous-Alexander demanded that the previous owner — 1223408 Ontario Limited, Ray Gupta, Sandeep Gupta, and Sunray Group of Hotels Inc. — buy back the home because he was never told about previous and ongoing threats. When Gilgeous-Alexander lived in the home people were showing up looking to get even with Pleterski, the previous tenant.

Pleterski is accused of scamming hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars through cryptocurrency.

Gilgeous-Alexander was “sufficiently alarmed by this news,” deciding to move out of the home and never return, Justice Centra said last year.

The lawsuit stated that Gilgeous-Alexander purchased the property from an Ontario-numbered company whose owner and sole director is Ray Gupta.

Before Gilgeous-Alexander was involved, in March 2021, Gupta agreed to sell the home to Pleterski as part of a rent-to-own agreement that was never completed. When the property was re-sold to Gilgeous-Alexander, Gupta and his son, Sandeep, were aware of the fraud allegations surrounding Pleterski and that investors were looking for the 25-year-old, said the judge.

In making his ruling, the judge last year emphasized that Sandeep Gupta knew when he was selling the home that there was a safety risk and had discussed it with Ray Gupta.

— with files from Jeff Pasquale