lets break it all down. ", He added: "We thought we were looking for basically a rich guy who had stolen money, Now either [Cotten is] dead, or if hes alive, hes a gambling addict whos broke.". [42] Another three empty wallets were believed to possibly be owned by Quadriga. All that money vanished into the crypto ether and only once investigations occured did people start to think that it may have been a scam all along. I just prayed. "So far, nothing's been found. Did Cotten fake his own death, investors began to ask, absconding to lands anew under a new name and a surgically rejigged face? at the time Canadas largest cryptocurrency exchange, Gerald Cotten, 30, died in questionable circumstances, Canadian company founder took crucial password to the grave. It certainly started to look like fraud, said one anonymous investor in the doc. I could have put it in stocks. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? [32] It also stated that Quadriga has 363,000 registered users and a sum of C$250 million is owed to 115,000 affected users. The Crypto King, aka Gerald "Gerry" Cotten, died in 2018, but his mysterious death is still a subject of controversy today. Gerald Cotten, 30, died abruptly in December 2018 of complications relating to Crohns disease while on honeymoon in Jaipur, India, with his wife, Jennifer Robertson. Either the funds were never received or quickly went missing. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. In their letter to the RCMP the law firm underlined the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr Cotten is in fact deceased. Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea about the $215-million scam In an exclusive interview, Jennifer Robertson speaks out publicly about her deceased husband,. [33] Aaron Matthews served as Director of Operations. Fifteen years later, Mr Cotten, known as Gerry, would be accused of swindling people online of a much bigger prize. He appointed Peter Wedlake of Grant Thornton to be chief restructuring officer. [34][35], On 14 January 2019,[36] Quadriga announced that their CEO, Gerald Cotten, had died the month prior from Crohn's disease while doing volunteer work at an orphanage in India. Likewise, the public was not much intrigued about their lives up until . Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Je Here Is Why People Think Gerald Cotten Is Still Alive. "I couldn't get any sleep. The shocking story has been recounted in a new Netflix documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt For The Crypto King. One of the Globe reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. "It did become an obsession.. ", "Vancouver crypto exchange, CIBC clash over frozen accounts", "Judge rules with CIBC, grants possession of disputed Quadriga funds to Ontario Superior Court", "The fintech 'genius' accused in $165m fraud", "Crypto Firm Cited in Bitfinex Case Had Also Worked With Quadriga", "Quadriga co-founder served time in U.S. for role in identity-theft ring, documents reveal", "Criminal Past Haunts Surviving Founder of Troubled Crypto Exchange", "Crypto firm CEO with $190 million password did die in Jaipur hospital", "Cryptocurrency Exchange Says It Can't Access $190 Million After CEO Unexpectedly Died", "Millions in cryptocurrencies frozen in Canada after only person who had password dies in India", "Crypto Exchange Founder Filed Will 12 Days Before He Died", "Quadriga CEO, whose death ignited a cryptocurrency storm, a kind man with taste for fine things, say friends", "Crypto Exchange Mystery Deepens as Board Seeks Court Protection", "Crypto exchange Quadriga files for creditor protection", "Quadriga mystery deepens with little evidence of cold wallets containing $250M", "A Crypto-Mystery: Is $136 Million Stuck or Missing? Mr Cottens story is now the subject of the documentary Dead Mans Switch: A Crypto Mystery, which streams on Discovery+, and in the new memoir of wife Jennifer Robertson, Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions. Lammer believes the evidence does suggest that Cotten died suddenly - having battled Crohn's disease for a number of years, even though the timing was suspicious. When Canadian blockchain whiz Gerald Cotten died unexpectedly last year, hundreds of millions of dollars in investor funds vanished into the crypto ether. Citing decomposition concerns, lawyers requested the exhumation be completed no later than spring 2020. Quadriga CX was left owning its 76,000 investors around $215million (CAD). Some people called for Geralds body to be exhumed. Netflix Special on Bitcoin Fraudster Gerald Cotten, His Wife, and QuadrigaCX. The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. [2], In January 2019 Ernst & Young reported that Quadriga did not have a bank account, but instead used third-party payment processors. It apparently had no formal accounting system. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with stealing millions from Quadrigas customers. In December 2018, Cotten died during his honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, in Jaipur, India. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is now streaming on Netflix. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. [17] In June 2017, Quadriga announced that they had lost ethereum worth US$14 million due to a smart contract error. It sucks.". Dhanani also had pleaded guilty to burglary and grand theft charges and had been deported to Canada. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. [17][29] Bloomberg also identified Patryn as Dhanani, showing that he had officially changed his name from Omar Dhanani to Omar Patryn in British Columbia in March 2003 and changed it again to Michael Patryn in October 2008. [7] Meanwhile, in order to manage the finances of the company during the process, a third-party monitor, Ernst & Young, was appointed. An official investigation concluded that Quadriga was"an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology". firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? But, due to the strict security of crypto, we may never know. Reported by Fansided, Globe and Mail journalist Nathan Vanderklippe spoke to Dr. Sharma, who dealt with Cotten when he came into the hospital. Netflix has seen a boom with its true-crime docuseries, from 'Tiger King' to 'Making a Murderer.' So, Patryn: shit-stirrer, criminal mastermind or another one beguiled by Cotten? So what exactly happened to Cotten, and is he still alive somewhere sitting on a mountain of stolen crypto? Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. You transferred them $1,000 and you could see the crypto in your account. The only catch: only Gerry knew the passwords to the companys crypto-vaults. There is a clear lesson here that having a single person owning this information creates a huge vulnerability.. The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Indian authorities maintain that Cotten, whose body was repatriated to Nova Scotia for a small closed-casket funeral, died on Dec. 9, 2018, shortly after checking into a luxury hotel in Jaipur. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. Cotten told a Globe and Mail reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had frozen the exchanges bank accounts. "I kept asking them: Where's my money? Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Investors are still hunting for millions in vanished cryptocurrencies, writes Josh Marcus, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. "[18], The company tried to raise money and list on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) working with Patryn. The documentary follows a group of Quadriga investors turned sleuths who dig into the suspicious death of Cotten and the millions of missing cryptocurrency they believe Cotten stole from them, according to a tweet from Netflix announcing the film. The Netflix documentary will follow investors-turned-investigators looking into theories on the founder's sudden death. Gerald Cotten. His wife Jennifer Robertson said he had promised to create a mechanism that turned thepasswords over to her when he died. There's also other posts on his Murdoch1337 account that are weird he asks for people to sell him old reddit accounts presumably because he would use these alt accounts to downvote people trying to slander his company or he would make posts on these alts saying how great Quadriga is. Was, whom employees described as a macho, terrifying character, that Patryn was involved in a money-laundering ring under a different name, Then, out of the blue, one Mike Patryn joined the Telegram group that investors were using to discuss conspiracies. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. "Once I deposited it, it was basically gone.". The doctor stated that while dying from Crohns disease is very rare, Cotten appeared to show signs of illness and suffered from three heart attacks in the same day the paramedics were unable to resuscitate him after his third cardiac arrest. On 10 December, a death certificate was issued by the local municipality as well as a "no objection certificate" from the police to return the body to Nova Scotia. He convinced tons of investors to fork over their money so he could invest it into Crypto. pic.twitter.com/rGymJ5f9Or. But when the banks, the law, and the. Quadriga's accounts are estimated to have held 190million ($250million). Cotten had allegedly told his wife he would create a mechanism that would allow her to access all of his crypto-related passwords should he die but. [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. [17] In a 2014 interview, founder Gerald Cotten explained that the company stored customer funds on paper wallets in safe deposit boxes: "So we just send money to them, we dont need to go back to the bank every time we want to put money into it. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. Tong Zou is one of thousands of customers left seriously out of pocket following Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten's mysterious death in 2018 at the age of 30. Cotten was young, energetic, passionate about cryptocurrency so when. Neither Costodian or Quadriga could access the funds. The circumstances sparked speculation from some in the crypto community that the CEO faked his death and stole his clients' money. The OSC tugged on the same thread, but neither could get hold of him. **Warning Spoilers ahead for Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King**. - October, November, December - during all that time," he said. #GeraldCotten #QuadrigaCX #Netflix #truecrime #wherearetheynow #gerrycotten #crypto #fraud #docuseries #truestory #biography #whathappenedto ------------------------------------IN THIS VIDEO:Sierra Walker ------------------------------------PRODUCER \u0026 FILMED BY:Chris Stiuso------------------------------------VIDEO EDITED BY:Brianna Raakman: https://www.instagram.com/brianna_raakman/ The teen, a bright computer enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, ran the operation on an online forum called TalkGold . (Neither men were charged in connection with Liberty Reserve). The tech-savvy individual traced domain names, links, and trades on the blockchain, discovering a lengthy track-record of schemes, from Mr Cottens early days on TalkGold, to his association with a business partner named Michael Patryn. The thing is, a CEOs death shouldnt lock customers out of their money. I personally believe that Cotten is not dead but I would like to hear from people who know more than me about this topic and what they think about the situation. Finally, the OSC discovered something that cracked the case wide open. Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten. Someone tracked Patryn to a scam forum called TalkGold, where Patryn talked to one user in particular, sceptre, a bunch. A C$24.7 million disbursement fund has been planned with C$300,000 to go to Cotten's widow, Jennifer Robertson, who advanced that amount to start the court proceedings; C$200,000 will go to Ernst & Young and another C$250,000 to its lawyers; C$229,842 will go to Quadriga's lawyers; and C$17,000 to independent contractors. I ended up losing my life savings I lost $400,000, Tong Zou, a tech worker quoted in the film, says. Facebook / Remembering Gerry Cotten In the weeks since Quadriga Fintech Solutions Corp. belatedly made his death public, the exchange's furious users have raised questions. "You appear dead for a few days, until you get the cure," the source said. Was he avoiding something or someone? One of the. The public didnt learn about the death for another 36 days, until January 2019. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Dying from Crohn's disease when only 1.6% of sufferers from this disease die of it and to happen to die from . The teen, a bright computer enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, ran the operation on an online forum called TalkGold, and promised his investors inconceivable returns of up to 150 per cent in two days. He appointed his wife as the executor of his estate, handing over a $9million real estate empire, his yacht and his Cessna plane - and he even left his two dogs an inheritance of $100,000. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. Quadriga's customers are owed C$260 million in cryptocurrency and cash. Then Cotten took a turn for the worse: he went into cardiac arrest three times; the third time, the doctors couldnt revive him and declared him dead. Premieres in 2022 pic.twitter.com/rP9iFJHkWm. She says she never received the passwords. For instance, had Cottens death certificate, which spelled his name as Cott, , been faked? Despite no concrete evidenceindeed, the murdered mans first name was not the same as Robertsons ex-husband, some angry investors lobbed death threats at Jennifer, convinced that she had murdered Cotten, too. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. March 30, 2022. They also found a substantial amount of money was used to fund a lavish lifestyle for the couple, including the use of private jets and luxury vehicles. It left Robertson the entire C$9.6-million estate and named her as the trustee. Now . The death, and the resulting collapse of Quadriga, set off a score of government and citizen investigations into how so much digital currency could be spirited away. ", QuadrigaCX founder used aliases, moved assets into personal accounts: report, "Quadriga Crypto Mystery Deepens With 'Cold Wallets' Found Empty", "After founder's sudden death, cryptocurrency exchange can't access $190 million in holdings", "Crypto Mystery: Quadriga's Wallets Are Empty, Putting Fate Of $137 Million in Doubt", "Unable to Retrieve Money, Cryptocurrency Investors Want Dead Executive Exhumed", Crypto exchange Quadriga was a fraud and founder was running Ponzi scheme, OSC report finds, QuadrigaCX: A Review by Staff of the Ontario Securities Commission, Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions, "Quadriga Accidentally Moved More Bitcoin to an Inaccessible Wallet", "Quadriga Founder's Widow Seeks Repayment of Her Costs", "Quadriga Lawyer Withdraws Amid Conflict of Interest Concerns", "Hot Docs Shane Smith: Weve crossed the digital divide", "Exit Scam: A Podcast Series about the Death and Afterlife of Gerald Cotten", "More than $400,000 in QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency disappears into 'cold wallet', "Before Quadriga: How shady ventures in Gerald Cotten's youth led to the creation of his ill-fated cryptocurrency exchange", "Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea about the $215-million scam", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quadriga_Fintech_Solutions&oldid=1141935834, Financial services companies established in 2013, Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Canada, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 17:09. Miller Thomson LLP sent a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday, requesting authorities conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy on the body of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, citing what the firm called the questionable circumstances around his death earlier this year. Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. Then, the crypto millionaire suddenly died in India from complications from Crohn's disease about three years ago. [3][4][5], Quadriga likely never invested the funds entrusted to it, according to Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency tracking firm. Cotton took with him to the grave the keys that allowed access to the digital vault containing his investors cash that they had ploughed into Quadriga CX. [17], Ernst & Young reported on 6 February 2019 that C$468,675 (US$354,300) of bitcoin were "inadvertently" sent to an inaccessible cold wallet. Quadriga had four employees in 2015 with offices in Vancouver and Toronto, but ran out of money by June 2015. Even today, some investors remain unconvinced that Cotten really is dead. Quadriga Fintech Solutions was the owner and operator of QuadrigaCX, which was believed to be Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange.In 2019 the exchange ceased operations and the company filed for bankruptcy with C$215.7 million in liabilities and about C$28 million in assets.. Furious investors continue to fight a legal battle to try and have Cotten's body exhumed as they believe his death was a cut and run scam. [30], According to Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, he died on 9 December 2018 while travelling in India. Despite presenting himself as mild mannered and clean cut, Cotten was found to have had a history of carrying out financial cons - starting when he was just a teenager. [53], A Netflix documentary titled Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King about the story of Gerald Cotten was released in March 2022. [22][23] C$28 million held by Costodian, a Quadriga payment processor, was frozen by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) in January 2018. It essentially removes the need for a central authority. Netflix has tried to get to the bottom of things in its, Trust No One depicts Cotten as a nerdy, happy-go-lucky, and charming CEO, who was knee-deep in, reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had, The investors found more questions than answers. [45], In June 2020, the Ontario Securities Commission officially concluded that Quadriga was indeed a fraud and a Ponzi scheme. However, it was eventually discovered that Gerald had transferred all of his belongings to his wife before his death. [48], On 5 February 2019, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael J. [17][20], In 2017, Bitcoin experienced a speculative frenzy rising in price from about US$1,000 to almost US$20,000. The 33-year-old has attempted to get his money back in a lawsuit, but hasn't had any luck as yet. [17] Michael Gastauer, Chief Executive of WB21, has been named in a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a US$165 million fraud. His death was kept secret for a month by the firm before it was finally announced - and it was found he had spent millions in investors' money funding his own lavish lifestyle. Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. "I could have invested it in real estate. There's a small chance that someone was investigating his old accounts and that they accessed his BlackHat but it's very unlikely. Using a reputable custodian to hold the private keys outside the company is perhaps the best option to ensure these codes are not lost, Erik Wilgenhof Plante, the former CCO of the exchange BeQuant, told The Independent at the time. Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company. #GeraldCottenReallyDead #GeraldCottenStillAliveGerald Cotten Really Dead ? [7][8] On 8 April 2019 the firm entered bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as the possibility of a successful reorganization appeared to be remote. Though some dont believe Mr Cotten is really gone, the money from Quadriga is. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A sneak preview of the Netflix doc contains images that suggest the documentary will show the investors dive deeper into these conspiracies. The young entrepreneur seemed to be at the height of his success, traveling around the world with his wife, Jennifer, and leading a jet-setting lifestyle. "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with. Given the mysterious circumstances of his deathand the enormous amount of money he controlledits no surprise that conspiracies quickly sprang up in an attempt to piece together the puzzles around his death. His body was repatriated to . Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. He is believed to have carried out Ponzi scheme scams since he was just 15 - such as playing a role in pre-crypto digital token eGold, according to investigator Amy Castor. I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. A NEW documentary on rogue crypto trader Gerald Cotton, who took up to $215million in Bitcoin and other digital currencies to his grave, has sparked rumours he may have faked his death. Mr Patryn pled guilty in 2005 to working in an identity fraud ring, and did business under a company called Midas Gold as an intermediary with Liberty Reserve, a Costa Rican digital currency firm busted as one of the largest money laundering operations in history. "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. Thats when the. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. Image Credit: CTV Your Morning/YouTube. TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KINGFollow a group of investors turned sleuths as they try to unlock the suspicious death of cryptocurrency multimillionaire Gerry Cotten and the missing $250 million they believe he stole from them. Netflixs documentary definitely seems to be in the corner that Cotten did die, despite the mystery surrounding his death. Cotten encrypted and stored about $190 million worth of his customers' Bitcoin caches and held sole responsibility for the passwords needed to access those funds. , and found an affidavit from Robertson saying that she didnt understand how QuadrigaCX operatedeven though one of Robertsons companies later wired cash to some of Quadrigas customers.