The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. 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. Things began to sour, however, in 2018, when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING, a DONT F*CK WITH CATS-style investigative thriller, is now streaming on Netflix. Investors who lost $190m demand exhumation of cryptocurrency mogul Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. Jilted investors of Cotton's crypto firm QuadrigaCX have demanded his corpse be exhumed and tests run to confirm its his body. Cotten passed away from complications that arose from Crohns disease while on a honeymoon in Indiaapparently taking some $215 million of customer funds to the grave. Mom 'stabs 3 of her kids to death and wounds 2 others in unsupervised visit', Daughter of murdered couple linked to Delphi case reveals paranoia, Serena Williams stepmom's debts continue to spiral amid crumbling home battle, Alex Murdaugh looks unrecognizable in new mugshot hours after sentencing, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP. The public didnt learn about the death for another 36 days, until January 2019. Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Je Obituary -Gerald Cotten Wife, Death Cause, Alive or Death? Wikipedia Netflix Special Explores Gerald Cotten's Wife and the QuadrigaCX Scandal Cotten told a Globe and Mail reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had frozen the exchanges bank accounts. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. Then, the crypto millionaire suddenly died in India from complications from Crohn's disease about three years ago. Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. Cottens death will likely remain a mystery, with some believing that he is still residing somewhere in the world with the stolen money. But the money, of course, was still missing. Living a jet set life, he cruised the world on yachts, flew in private jets and investigators even released photos of piles of cash on his kitchen table. I'm 99% sure he is still alive living nicely. [17][20], In 2017, Bitcoin experienced a speculative frenzy rising in price from about US$1,000 to almost US$20,000. as well as other partner offers and accept our. [16] In 2014 only C$7.4 million worth of bitcoin were exchanged on Quadriga. name was not the same as Robertsons ex-husband, some angry investors lobbed death threats at Jennifer, convinced that she had murdered Cotten, too. [30], According to Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, he died on 9 December 2018 while travelling in India. 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? He first encountered Bitcoin in Vancouver, British . Mystery of crypto CEO who died, taking $250 million with him 'Bitcoin widow' reveals how she fell victim to her own husband's $215m [48], On 5 February 2019, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Finally, the OSC discovered something that cracked the case wide open. Did Cotten fake his own death, investors began to ask, absconding to lands anew under a new name and a surgically rejigged face? While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! My sisters not a liar.. Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. It is highly unusual for only a single executive to be the one with access to a company's fund, further muddying the waters around what happened to Cotten. 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. He is believed to have scooped around around $115million in crypto from his own accounts and put them into high risk financial bets - many of which crashed, costing him more money than Quadriga ever actually made. Cotton's sudden death from complications of Crohn's disease aged 30 shocked the crypto world - but many believe he may have faked his death in an elaborate "exit scam". - October, November, December - during all that time," he said. The business was run from Cotten's encrypted laptop from Cotten's home in Fall River, Nova Scotia. This was my entire savings, built through ten years of work, said one disgruntled customer in the doc. Died, and He Had the Passwords", "Pre-filing report of the proposed monitor", "Controversial QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency exchange placed in bankruptcy", "Quadriga Should Shift to Bankruptcy Proceedings, Monitor Says", "FBI Probing Bitcoin Exchange Quadriga Over Missing $136 Million, Source Alleges", "Quadriga: Lawyers for users of bankrupt crypto firm seek exhumation of founder", "How Gerald Cotten built Quadriga and created the ensuing crypto storm", "Ponzi Schemes, Private Yachts, and a Missing $250 Million in Crypto: The Strange Tale of Quadriga", "Geek Speak: Gerald Cotton, CEO of Quadriga CX", "Crypto chaos: From Vancouver to Halifax, tracing the mystery of Quadriga's missing millions", "Quadriga's late founder used to store clients' Bitcoin passwords on paper so they wouldn't get lost", "A crypto exchange CEO dies-with the only key to $137 million", "Details emerging about Gerald Cotten, the young founder of QuadrigaCX", "My smart contract just ate $14 millionnow what? ", "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? Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. 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. G erald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. Lawyers representing investors in what BBC. Netflixs latest true crime doc, "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King",seeks to unravel the mystery of Gerald Cotten, the CEO of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, who died in 2018. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. 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. [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. She has also said she has no idea what the passwords are to access sequestered customer funds, and that it wasnt written down anywhere. In that case, $851 million entrusted to Crypto Capital had been "lost, stolen or absconded with", according to the suit. A 33-YEAR-OLD man lost his life savings after getting involved with a cryptocurrency trader who died, taking the password to access funds to the grave. [9][10], The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were reportedly investigating the company. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! His body was repatriated to . 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. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. The funeral, according to a Redditor claiming to be a contractor for QuadrigaCX, said that it was a closed-casket affair, and that Jennifer was fake grieving and dancing at the funeral to bacchanalian excess, and even kicked out Geralds family. CIBC stated that they could not determine the ownership of the money and could not contact Cotten or Quadriga. But the mingling didnt end there: the crypto kingpin also allegedly mixed client money with his own, according to investigators, funding the lavish lifestyle he became known for. [33], Cotten's will was signed 27 November 2018, twelve days before he allegedly died. [27] Another payment processor used by Quadriga, Crypto Capital, was named in a civil suit filed by the New York Attorney General in April 2019. There's a small chance that someone was investigating his old accounts and that they accessed his BlackHat but it's very unlikely. He launched QuadrigaCX in 2013, and it quickly became one of the largest crypto exchanges. 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. Dying from Crohn's disease when only 1.6% of sufferers from this disease die of it and to happen to die from . His body was embalmed and sent back to Canada for a closed-casket funeral. It was a perfect match, sparked up on Tinder, she said in the documentary. Quadriga Fintech Solutions was the owner and operator of QuadrigaCX, which was believed to be Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Customers reported that once they arrived, there was nobody in the office, or that there was no cash to be disbursed. Quadriga had four employees in 2015 with offices in Vancouver and Toronto, but ran out of money by June 2015. About C$1.2 billion worth of bitcoin was exchanged on Quadriga. The only catch: only Gerry knew the passwords to the companys crypto-vaults. Business picked up when Bitcoin hit the big time in 2017, reaching prices close to $20,000. Re-thinking indemnification for smart contract risks", "Bitcoin investors face long delays cashing out, criticize two B.C.