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

A man who admitted his role in the massive gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson airport told a Brampton, Ont., court that he melted and sold some of the gold before travelling to Pakistan, where he claims he was kidnapped and abused to give up the loot.

Arsalan Chaudhary started testifying Tuesday in the trial of Parmpal Sidhu, a former Air Canada employee who has pleaded not guilty to charges of theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in the April 2023 heist.

Prosecutors allege that Sidhu provided a doctored waybill that allowed another man to pick up more than $22 million in gold and currency from a Pearson airport cargo bay in what investigators have called one of the largest gold heists in Canadian history.

Chaudhary, who was sentenced this spring to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft over $5,000, told Sidhu’s trial that he planned the heist with Simran Preet Panesar, who is wanted by authorities.

He said they divided boxes full of one-ounce gold bars and he took 30 per cent of the boxes while Panesar took 70 per cent.

“That’s the deal we made,” he said. “I didn’t know at first it was going to happen. So, I was like ‘OK, and if it does happen, 30 per cent of that, I’m pretty happy with it.'”

Chaudhary said he didn’t really know Sidhu and that he only called or texted him when he couldn’t get a hold of Panesar.

He said the gold bars had TD Bank markings and he took his share to a condo in the Greater Toronto Area, adding that he doesn’t remember its address. Chaudhary said he started melting the gold for sale, acquiring $200,000 to $300,000 in cash.

“Whatever gold I had, I started melting it … I had a machine, a gold melting machine,” he said. “It’s not brain surgery. It’s pretty simple: Turn it on, heat it up, put it in there, it melts.”

He said he doesn’t recall how much gold he melted each time nor how much of his share he melted, but said he was doing it so the gold could not be traced.

Chaudhary said he travelled to Mexico and Portugal before he ended up in Pakistan to “invest the money and buy a business or something.”

He testified that a group of people in police uniforms abducted him in Pakistan and abused him, so he was forced to let people they worked with take the remaining gold and cash from his condo in Canada, as well as the cash he left at his cousin’s house in Pakistan.

“They took me to (an) area. I was blindfolded so I couldn’t tell. When I got there they abused me,” he testified. “Before they could do anything further, I … told them, ‘I will give you everything. You don’t need to do anything. You have me. My life is worth more than any money.'”

Chaudhary said he believed the kidnappers learned he had money from a man he met in Pakistan, who had helped him procure his gold-melting machine and transfer cash from Canada to Pakistan.

He said the kidnappers let him go and he went to Dubai, where he stayed at his cousin’s house looking for work until he came back to Canada on Jan. 12, 2026.

As part of his sentencing, Chaudhary was given 40 years to pay back $22 million in restitution.

“All of this was not even worth it. I destroyed people’s lives. I did everything for nothing,” he said on the witness stand. “Now, I’m here.”

The Crown asked Chaudhary about text and group chat messages related to the heist, but he repeatedly said he did not remember or recall the content of these conversations, nor who was involved in them.

The stolen gold and foreign currency were ordered from Zurich, Switzerland, and transported in the hull of an Air Canada flight to Toronto, police said when they released details of the investigation dubbed Project 24K. The shipment was then brought to an Air Canada cargo facility at the airport, police said.

Later that day, a suspect presented a fraudulent airway bill to warehouse employees, who loaded the shipment onto his five-tonne truck, police alleged.

Chaudhary is expected to continue his testimony on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2026.