Key figure in Pearson gold heist tells trial kidnappers took his money in Pakistan

A man who admitted his role in the Pearson airport gold heist testified in a Brampton court about plans for the operation and how he divided the loot with a co-conspirator.

He described melting and selling part of the gold before traveling to Pakistan, where he says he was abducted and abused to reveal the remaining loot. He said the money and gold were then taken from his Canadian condo and a location in Pakistan.

The testimony referenced the April 2023 heist at Toronto’s Pearson airport, in which prosecutors allege a doctored waybill allowed another man to take more than $22 million in gold and currency from a Pearson cargo bay. The alleged mastermind, Parmpal Sidhu, pleaded not guilty to theft over $5,000 and conspiracy.

The witness said he and Simran Preet Panesar planned the heist, with him receiving about 30 percent of the boxes of one-ounce gold bars and Panesar taking 70 percent. He indicated his share was stored in a Greater Toronto Area condo and later melted for sale, with cash proceeds of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He testified that he travelled to Mexico and Portugal before ending up in Pakistan, where kidnappers forced him to surrender the remaining assets. He later went to Dubai and returned to Canada in January 2026. He is serving a restitution order of 22 million dollars as part of his sentence.