# Toronto Airport Gold Heist Mastermind Testifies Amid Memory Claims Key witness Arsalan Chaudhary struggles to recall heist details during ongoing criminal trial proceedings. - **Source:** [National Post - RSS Feed](https://nationalpost.com/) - **Published:** 2026-10-19 - **Topic:** [Business](https://brifing.si/c/business) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/a83437d9-4b41-4e2a-8dd5-b617b57fc1a3 ## Heist Mastermind Takes Stand Arsalan Chaudhary, a 43-year-old Mississauga resident, is currently serving a four-year sentence for his role in the 2023 Pearson Airport gold heist. He admitted to being a primary architect of the theft, which involved stealing $22.5 million in gold and cash from an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after a Zurich flight arrival. ## Memory Loss and Trauma During his testimony in Brampton, Chaudhary frequently claimed memory lapses, citing PTSD from a kidnapping in Pakistan and harsh prison conditions. Despite a five-day court-ordered break to recover and access medication, he continued to struggle with recalling specific details, text messages, or even his own phone number during the ongoing trial proceedings. ## Adversarial Witness Designation Crown prosecutor Jelena Vlacic faced significant resistance from Chaudhary, who repeatedly claimed he could not recognize evidence or his own previous statements. Due to his persistent lack of cooperation and memory claims, Judge Gordon Cudjoe granted the prosecution permission to treat Chaudhary as an adversarial witness to allow for more direct questioning. ## The Inside Man Connection Chaudhary identified Simran Preet Panesar, a former Air Canada cargo manager, as the other mastermind behind the operation. He testified that the plan involved splitting the stolen assets, with Panesar receiving 70 percent and Chaudhary taking 30 percent. Panesar remains a fugitive and is currently believed to be living in India. ## Contradictory Testimony Patterns While Chaudhary claimed memory loss regarding the heist, he remained animated when discussing prison culture and the stigma of snitching. He admitted that snitching is never viewed positively in jail, regardless of whether the target is in the country or abroad, contradicting his earlier claims of having no opinion on the matter. ## Evidence of Digital Communication Prosecutors presented text messages recovered from a seized phone, including discussions about melting down the gold. Chaudhary denied recognizing the messages or the phone itself, despite previous sworn testimony. He claimed he did not understand terms like delegated, portraying himself as less intelligent than the prosecution suggested during his cross-examination. ## Limited Link to Sidhu Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Shale Wagman, Chaudhary clarified his relationship with the accused, Parmpal Sidhu. He stated he had no financial dealings with Sidhu and never saw him at his stash houses. He described Sidhu primarily as a conduit used to pass messages to Panesar during the planning phase. ## Trial Implications and Status The trial continues as the court attempts to reconcile Chaudhary’s current testimony with his previous guilty plea statements. The case highlights the complexities of prosecuting high-value cargo thefts when key participants provide conflicting accounts. The court remains focused on determining the extent of Sidhu's involvement based on the limited evidence provided. ## Sources covering this story - https://nationalpost.com/news/toronto-gold-heist-trial — --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._