Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, A lost password, a sudden death and $180M in missing crypto, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, Up to 20% off & extra perks with Booking.com Genius Membership, 50 cash with friend referrals at Virgin Mobile, 15% off extra plans with this Vodafone promo, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK March 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this March, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. [17][20], In 2017, Bitcoin experienced a speculative frenzy rising in price from about US$1,000 to almost US$20,000. He graduated from York with a bachelor of business administration in 2010. There's only two people who really know what happened in India. Netflix's 'Trust No One': Who Was QuadrigaCX CEO Gerald Cotten? This was more of a gamblers high than a rich guys high as he pursued more and more of other peoples money, the stakes went up. firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? Cotten also took flying lessons as he appeared to be possibly preparing for a life on the run. [50], Quadriga's lawyer, the firm Stewart McKelvey, withdrew from the case due to a potential conflict of interest. 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. Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company. Gerald Cotten. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. 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. Everyone knows the story about the now-defunct QuadrigaCX . April 2, 2022 Netflix Nobody was expecting Gerald Cotten, the CEO of Canadian Bitcoin exchange QuadrigaCX, to die at 30. It has led the pack of other streaming giants, producing the most projects in the true-crime genre as of 2020. His death certificate spells his name wrong, he was supposedly buried in a closed casket in Canada even though there is no evidence his body was ever moved from India and why would it need to be a closed casket? The OSC found that after 2016, QuadrigaCX stopped producing consistent data about its holdings, and that large volumes of cryptocurrencies were being sent to foreign crypto exchanges. Shortly after, the exchange stopped working entirely. While the large increase in volume increased commissions, it also caused cash-flow problems due to the exchange's reliance on external payment processors and its lack of a proper accounting system. Given the intrigue, some went so far as to question whether Mr Cotten had really died and demanded his body be exhumed. Since his death, Cotten has been recast as a habitual scammer who would enjoy the thrill of knowing he was duping his customers and investors. But when the banks, the law, and the. [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. [19], Some Reddit users have suggested that Cotten faked his own death in order to defraud customers through an exit scam, while others believe that Cotten's death exposed a Ponzi scheme. Here Is Why People Think Gerald Cotten Is Still Alive: The Death Robertsons sister, for the record, doesnt think that Cotten had fabricated his relationship with Jennifer. You get rid of a lot of the regulations, he said on a podcast in 2014. 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. Where was the rest of the money? Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. "At that time, there was nothing I could do. The podcast was reported by Aaron Lammer and Lane Brown.[55]. [47], Gerald Cotten's widow has maintained that she knew nothing about her husband's activities and agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets. About C$1.2 billion worth of bitcoin was exchanged on Quadriga. He convinced tons of investors to fork over their money so he could invest it into Crypto. Rather than pay customers via bank wires, they were told to come to a nondescript building in Laval, Quebec to pick up the cash. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? : r/QuadrigaCX - reddit Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is now streaming on Netflix. Here's my take on Gerald Cotten and his suspicious death. And meanwhile, Dead Man's Switch director Sheona McDonald said: "There's only two people who really know what happened in India.". [19] Other than a few contractors, it had no employees, offices or bank accounts thereafter. Mystery of rogue Bitcoin trader who 'died' taking with him password to But pour in it did. [3][4][5], Quadriga likely never invested the funds entrusted to it, according to Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency tracking firm. Supposedly, Cottens business associates didnt even know he was married. It just wasnt there. Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. Lawyers representing investors in what BBC. [54], A 2021 8-episode podcast entitled Exit Scam followed the buildup of Quadriga, and investigated whether Gerald Cotten had faked his own 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. 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. His will was signed off just two weeks before he and wife Jennifer Robertson travelled to India on their honeymoon. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Like many in the industry, he framed his enterprise not merely as a financial tool, but a radical societal change, touting the crypto gospel in podcast appearances and videos on YouTube. 'The Crypto King': Who is Gerald Cotten and Where is Gerry Now? - Newsweek His death sparked online debates and string theories on Reddit and. This was my entire savings, built through ten years of work, said one disgruntled customer in the doc. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. Now Cottens jet-set lifestyle looked suspicious. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. [11] Lawyers for the customers of the exchange have asked that Cotten's body be exhumed.[12]. 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. Investors who believed that Cotten had faked his own death and ran away with the money had made one huge assumption: that Cotten had money to steal. Conspiracy theorists insist that Cotten faked his own death, however, as many irregularities surrounding his death began to circulate, including a copy of his misspelled death certificate and the fact that his funeral had a closed casket. Cotten was young, energetic, passionate about cryptocurrency so when. 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.. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. In December of 2018, the jet-setting crypto couple headed to India for their honeymoon, where Mr Cotten died of complications from Crohns disease, 12 days after modifying his will. All Filters. Someone tracked Patryn to a scam forum called TalkGold, where Patryn talked to one user in particular, sceptre, a bunch. Image Source: Social Media. After his death in December, his colleagues said that about $137 million in cryptocurrency belonging to about 115,000 customers was held offline in "cold storage" and inaccessible. Where Is Gerald Cotten's Wife, Jennifer Robertson Now? - Ecelebritymirror Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! Another "appears to have been used to receive Bitcoin from another cryptocurrency exchange account and subsequently transfer Bitcoin to the Quadriga hot wallet" on 3 December. The business was run from Cotten's encrypted laptop from Cotten's home in Fall River, Nova Scotia. Mr Cotten, 30 at the time of his death, seemed to be living the dream life of a financial titan. Quadriga's customers are owed C$260 million in cryptocurrency and cash. His body was repatriated to Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery," according to Chainalysis. Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . No longer a likable nerd, investors thought that Gerald, now sceptre, had been operating scams since he was 15. The doctor, reported the Globe, initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. It was one of the only games in town [for crypto enthusiasts], Sheona McDonald, who directed the film, told The New York Post. Like other crypto-exchanges, Quadriga kept its funds in so-called cold wallets, digital storage devices not connected to the internet, which are safe from hacking. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. [49], On 5 March 2019, Justice Wood extended Quadriga's court protection to 23 April. 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. How Gerald Cotten, the "Crypto King," Really Died - Bustle The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. Gerald Cotten had an estimated net worth of $80 million at the time of his death. Was the CEOknown for his luxurious lifestyle, which included jets, supercars and vacationsmurdered by a mob debt collector or a jealous lover? He and his wife, Jennifer Robertson, jetted all over the world on private planes, visiting chic locales in Paris, Hawaii, and Morocco. The couple were on their honeymoon in India, where Jennifer had dreams of opening an orphanage. He graduated from York in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. Quadriga Fintech Solutions - Wikipedia [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.