`Exchange bandit' pleads guilty
Kevin John Pinto would ask about the U.S. dollar, then rob the teller.
Pinto's the name and robbing banks to pay off a gambling debt was his game – until he was arrested. Now the former compliance officer at an investment firm awaits his sentence
Sep 17, 2009 04:30 AM
Raveena Aulakh Staff reporter
All his heists were at lunchtime.
Last year, on Sept. 12, Kevin John Pinto left his plush 21st-floor office at 95 Wellington St. W. and went down to the main floor. He walked by a Second Cup in the lobby, out on to the street and headed northwest to the Bank of Nova Scotia on King St. W., a five-minute walk away.
At 12:30 p.m., he went up to a teller and asked her about the American dollar exchange rate. She was probably still explaining when he handed her a note. It said: "This is a holdup. Give me all the 50s and 20s."
Minutes later, he strolled out with over $7,200 – just like that.
Pinto, 38, a former financial compliance officer with investment firm Paradigm Capital, pleaded guilty yesterday to 10 counts of robbery.
He turned himself in last October after the Canadian Bankers Association posted a $10,000 reward for his capture and Toronto police released surveillance video of the so-called "exchange bandit."
He acquired that nickname because he would first ask the teller about the rate of the American dollar before producing a holdup note.
Yesterday, Pinto, dressed in a powder-blue shirt and a black suit, appeared at ease as he sat chatting with an officer, his face occasionally crinkling into a smile as they waited for the judge to arrive in the courtroom.
Pinto quietly pleaded guilty and looked straight ahead as Crown prosecutor Louise MacNaughton read the list of charges against him.
A gun was never seen, the court was told.
Pinto has no previous record.
Sentencing was postponed to Oct. 13 for the judge to consider submissions about Pinto's character and motive.
Outside the court, Pinto's lawyer, Calvin Barry, attributed his client's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of scenario" to a compulsive gambling addiction that left him with a debt of more than $100,000 and his credit cards maxed out.
Pinto gambled online and at casinos, said Barry.
"He was in a deficit situation and the credit people were creeping up ... the noose was tightening," said Barry, explaining his client's brazen spree of bank robberies.
Pinto's first heist was on Jan. 2, 2002, in Mississauga where he walked out with $4,500 stuffed in an envelope. He later ripped off banks in Brampton, Kitchener, Cambridge, Oakville and downtown Toronto.
The amounts ranged from $255 to $9,600, adding up to over $33,000.
His modus operandi never changed: Pinto, who never wore a mask, presented a holdup note to the teller that sometimes said he had a gun and warned: "Don't do anything stupid."
In one instance, he pulled off two heists in one day.
On Aug. 9, 2008, a Saturday, he went to the Bank of Montreal on College St. but he got only $255 from the teller. Forty-five minutes later, he walked into a CIBC in Oakville and left with over $9,000.
But the robberies stopped for a few years when he was married.
Barry acknowledged yesterday that Pinto's wife was trying to help. But the two broke up.
He was soon back to holdups.
The "exchange bandit's" string of robberies had police flummoxed. Pinto eluded police until last year when police released three photos pulled from security cameras.
After the images were splashed in newspapers and on TV, the story allegedly goes, Pinto's colleagues at Paradigm teased him about how he resembled the wanted man and that he should get himself a lawyer.
That's what Pinto did.
He then turned himself in, stunning family, friends and co-workers. He has been in custody since.
Pinto started work at Paradigm in January 2006 after a stint with the National Bank. He was one of two compliance staff at Paradigm and was responsible for providing oversight and ensuring the firm's trading activities complied with regulatory requirements.
"He had an impeccable life before he hit the skids here," said Barry.
Within hours of his arrest, he was suspended from work and his family had moved his stuff out of his one-bedroom apartment in a lakefront condo.
Now, he faces several years' imprisonment.
MacNaughton said she is seeking a "significant penitentiary term ... not double-digits."
Barry said his client is remorseful and wants to put the addiction behind him.
With files from Betsy Powell
