Ex-Air Canada Manager to Turn Himself In Over $20M Gold Heist, Says Lawyer
A former Air Canada manager wanted on a Canada-wide warrant in connection with the $20-million gold heist at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport has agreed to turn himself in.
Simran Preet Panesar, 31, is sought on charges including theft over $5,000 and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, Peel Regional Police announced last month.
Panesar was employed by Air Canada at the time of the theft in April 2023.
Panesar’s lawyer, Greg Lafontaine, told his client is “very confident in the Canadian justice system.”
“When this prosecution is over, he will have been absolved of any wrongdoing,” Lafontaine added, without disclosing Panesar’s location.
In April 2023, a shipping container filled with 6,600 bars of almost pure gold, weighing 400.19 kilograms, was stolen from an Air Canada cargo facility shortly after arriving on a flight to Toronto from Zurich, Switzerland.
In addition to the gold, valued at more than $20 million, the container also contained various foreign currencies worth about $2.5 million. The contents were being delivered by Brink’s on behalf of two clients.
Panesar quit his job as a manager at the Air Canada cargo facility a few months after the heist and disappeared.
Police announced the charges against him and eight others in April.
Lafontaine said he contacted police and the Crown prosecutor to inform them that Panesar plans to return voluntarily to Canada “in the next few weeks.”
Several arrests have already been made in connection with the heist. Last month, Archit Grover, 36, was detained at Pearson airport after arriving on a flight from India.
Grover’s arrest followed the arrests of five men in Canada and one in the U.S. for their alleged involvement in the crime.
Arsalan Chaudhary, a 42-year-old man of no fixed address, is still at large and is wanted for theft over $5,000, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, and two counts of possession of property obtained by crime.
In April, police reported that much of the stolen gold had been melted down and transformed in a workshop located in the basement of a Greater Toronto Area jewelry store.
The theft is considered the sixth largest gold heist in modern world history.
