The accounting firm Ernst & Young, tasked with auditing the company as it undergoes bankruptcy proceedings, discovered numerous money-losing trades executed by Cotten, using customers funds. I took out three loans from the bank and put it all into crypto. ", "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? More than three years after the sudden death of Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten and the revelations that the company was a massive cryptocurrency scam, his widow, Jennifer Robertson, tells her side of the story.#Quadriga #GeraldCotten #BitcoinWatch The National live on YouTube Sunday-Friday at 9 p.m. ETSubscribe to The National: https://www.youtube.com/user/CBCTheNational?sub_confirmation=1Connect with The National online:Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/thenationalTwitter | https://twitter.com/CBCTheNationalInstagram | https://www.instagram.com/cbcthenationalMore from CBC News | https://www.cbc.ca/newsThe National is CBC's flagship nightly news program, featuring the day's top stories with in-depth and original journalism, with hosts Adrienne Arsenault and Andrew Chang in Toronto, Ian Hanomansing in Vancouver and the CBC's chief political correspondent, Rosemary Barton in Ottawa. [37] According to an affidavit by the CEO's widow, approximately 115,000 customers are owed C$250 million (US$190 million), most of which was cryptocurrency held in Quadriga's cold wallet in the laptop that only the deceased CEO had access to. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . We just send money from our Bitcoin app directly to those paper wallets, and keep it safe that way. His death sparked online debates and string theories on Reddit and. It apparently had no formal accounting system. Gerald and Jennifer kept most of their relationship away from the public. Customers reported that once they arrived, there was nobody in the office, or that there was no cash to be disbursed. The streaming service announced the feature alongside a slate of upcoming true-crime projects last week. When Taylor Monahan, founder of MyCrypto, examined the exchanges cold wallets, she couldnt find the lost crypto. Like the end of a classic Ponzi, the OSC said that due to Cottens bad trades, QuadrigaCX couldnt afford to credit customers who withdrew funds. 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. A new Netflix true-crime documentary is tackling a bizarre story from the world of cryptocurrency. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? She says she never received the passwords. Where was the rest of the money? Given the intrigue, some went so far as to question whether Mr Cotten had really died and demanded his body be exhumed. G erald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. Netflix's 'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' explores the story of Gerald Cotten, founder and CEO of Canadian crypto exchange business QuadrigaCX, whose passed away unexpectedly in 2018. Gerald Cotten had an estimated net worth of $80 million at the time of his death. I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. Finally, the OSC discovered something that cracked the case wide open. Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. 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. But months later, customers still couldnt take their money out. 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. Gerald Cotten was the talk of the cryptocurrency world in Canada after he introduced QuadrigaCX, a place where investors could buy and sell cryptocurrency. Lived In Los Angeles CA, Austin TX, Van Nuys CA . Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, was thought to have had sole access to the funds and coins exchanged on it. Quadriga's customers are owed C$260 million in cryptocurrency and cash. The Crypto King, aka Gerald "Gerry" Cotten, died in 2018, but his mysterious death is still a subject of controversy today. 'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' will be released sometime in 2022. 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. [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. It has led the pack of other streaming giants, producing the most projects in the true-crime genre as of 2020. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). However, in 2018, Bitcoin prices crashed and many began withdrawing their funds from Quadriga, except they were being met with error messages before the exchanges website stopped working in 2019. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. Things began to sour, however, in 2018, when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. Cotten was young, energetic, passionate about cryptocurrency so when. name was not the same as Robertsons ex-husband, some angry investors lobbed death threats at Jennifer, convinced that she had murdered Cotten, too. That same month, Quadriga filed for creditor protection, and scores of angry investors began furiously questioning where their money went, even though only Mr Cotten knew the keys to the companys crypto vault and never set up a dead mans trigger to send them elsewhere in case he was incapacitated. [54], A 2021 8-episode podcast entitled Exit Scam followed the buildup of Quadriga, and investigated whether Gerald Cotten had faked his own death. In January 2014 they installed the second Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver. The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. I believe this is the reason why Quadriga could be formed because they made a fortune from Scamming before Quadriga. A computer issue wiped $14 million of Ethereum off the exchange. 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.. 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. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The tech whiz however didn't even need to do it - being an early believer in crypto, he likely would have got rich without the need to scam people. 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. He was 30-years-old. But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. 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. 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. Some 76,000 investors like Zou collectively lost out. Gerald Cotten, 30, died abruptly in December 2018 of complications relating to Crohn's disease while on honeymoon in Jaipur, India, with his wife, Jennifer Robertson. Have something to tell us about this article? Official investigations into the matter have yet to produce any definitive answers. Bankruptcy trustees have managed to recover around $34million from Quadriga and $12million in assests from Cotten's estate - but the rest remains locked away in the digital world of crypto. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. 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. [11] Lawyers for the customers of the exchange have asked that Cotten's body be exhumed.[12]. Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. as well as other partner offers and accept our. https://bit.ly/3cAIH4j Newest Vid's https:. An official investigation concluded that Quadriga was"an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology". Mar. 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? "Once I deposited it, it was basically gone.". [48], On 5 February 2019, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael J. By Robin Hill-Gray. Netflix Special on Bitcoin Fraudster Gerald Cotten, His Wife, and QuadrigaCX. 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. [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. And, wildly, was Jennifer, his wife, even real? He died just nine days into his honeymoon due to an acute stomach ache. The doctor, reported the Globe, initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. Email us at [email protected], Ring removes free perks for millions of users, you'll have pay to get them back, Android users told check for five Google 'danger phrases' don't ignore list, Facebook's hidden list reveals if you're a 'target' for criminals, People are just realizing Apple upgraded the iPhone with 7 life-changing secrets, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Tong Zou tells his devastating story in new Netflix doc, Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten died in 2018, taking password to access funds with him. Fake trading: I'm almost certain that he was trading with fake crypto, Chris Markay was one of the accounts that Cotten used to trade his "crypto" he also is known to have other aliases Sceptre Gerry, Aretwo Deetwo and Seethree Peaohh. 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. I'm new to this subreddit, I apologise if anything I have said breaks the rules. seeks to unravel the mystery of Gerald Cotten, the CEO of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, who died in 2018. [6], Ernst & Young was appointed as an independent monitor while Quadriga was granted temporary legal protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Two years after Liberty Reserve was taken down, the pair launched Quadriga, though Mr Patryn left the company in 2016 over a dispute on whether to list the company publicly and claims no involvement in the resulting schemes. It comes as we revealed some of the world's biggest crypto scams following the case of Bitcoin tradersRaees Cajee, 21 and Ameer, 18,who fledSouth Africa after allegedly pocketing 2.5billion. Then, the crypto millionaire suddenly died in India from complications from Crohn's disease about three years ago. Up to C$250 million (US$190 million) in cryptocurrency owed to 115,000 customers was missing[2] or could not be accessed because only Cotten held the password to off-line cold wallets. Their online exchange launched after the first month. The shocking story has been recounted in a new Netflix documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt For The Crypto King. Front Burner- Inside Canada's Crypto Mystery, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King, "Investigation of Quadriga cryptocurrency debacle turns up only $28 million in assets", "Nothing sinister about bitcoin company CEO's sudden death, friend says", "Troubled Bitcoin trader QuadrigaCX takes another bizarre turn", "Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga seeks creditor protection", "Bitcoin Accounts for 95% of Cryptocurrency Crime, Says Analyst", "Crypto-Exchange Says It Can't Pay Investors Because Its C.E.O. 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. CIBC stated that they could not determine the ownership of the money and could not contact Cotten or Quadriga. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. Either this is a 1 in 100 million coincidence or he is still alive. [28], Quadriga used an unusual teller-window system for customers to withdraw their money. ", 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. 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. "At that point, we were desperate to recover funds and we were also convinced that a scam was underway," said QCX-INT, an individual who uncovered online documentation of Mr Cottens history of fraudulent behaviour, speaking anonymously to the CBC this year. The podcast was reported by Aaron Lammer and Lane Brown.[55]. Robertson has not been accused of any wrongdoing - and has denied any knowledge of her husband's business dealings. The dude literally said that comment as a complete joke, and I even . Was the CEOknown for his luxurious lifestyle, which included jets, supercars and vacationsmurdered by a mob debt collector or a jealous lover? [50], Quadriga's lawyer, the firm Stewart McKelvey, withdrew from the case due to a potential conflict of interest. No one but him can access accounts, he ran a whole market on a laptop by himself with no other employees or partners anymore so only he could access it and he suddenly dies when he would be in massive debt for delayed payments and would likely be convicted for fraud or money laundering. [33] Aaron Matthews served as Director of Operations. [4] Blockchain analysts have reported that they are unable to find evidence of Quadriga's cold wallets on the blockchain, a public ledger used for cryptocurrencies. 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. Shortly after, the exchange stopped working entirely. Gerald Cotten. There was no autopsy on the body, for instance, and Cotten had signed his will two weeks after he diedleaving his riches to Jennifer. Quadriga started by doing only local trades. [45], In June 2020, the Ontario Securities Commission officially concluded that Quadriga was indeed a fraud and a Ponzi scheme. Trust No One depicts Cotten as a nerdy, happy-go-lucky, and charming CEO, who was knee-deep in Bitcoin and a fierce advocate of the technology. [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. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. 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 new documentary "Dead Man's Switch" looks at the mystery of Gerald Cotten, the QuadrigaCX CEO who unexpectedly died and some $250 in investors' money seemingly disappeared with him. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two Globe and Mail reporters followed up on the case. She had accompanied him to a hospital in Jaipur the previous day and he was diagnosed with septic shock, perforation, peritonitis, and intestinal obstruction. "I couldn't get any sleep. [43][44] On 13 December 2019, the court-appointed law firm representing the exchange's former users sent a letter to the RCMP asking that they exhume Cotten's body to confirm his identity and verify a cause of death. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with. So his spiral down into a life of crime was either pure greed or him seeking the thrill. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. It was one of the only games in town [for crypto enthusiasts], Sheona McDonald, who directed the film, told The New York Post. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. 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. His body was embalmed and sent back to Canada for a closed-casket funeral. "You appear dead for a few days, until you get the cure," the source said. California (2) Massachusetts (1) Texas (2) Refine Your Search Results. 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. 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,. After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. Here's a link to the BlackHat forum. In her memoir, Ms Robertson denies shes part of an elaborate plot to fake her husbands death, adding that speculation has led to death threats from stalkers demanding she returns the missing millions. All Filters. 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. He convinced tons of investors to fork over their money so he could invest it into Crypto. "[46] The Official Ontario Securities report on Quadriga is attached here. Rather than pay customers via bank wires, they were told to come to a nondescript building in Laval, Quebec to pick up the cash. [52], The CBC released a 6-episode podcast about Quadriga and the death of its founder called A Death in Cryptoland. In that case, $851 million entrusted to Crypto Capital had been "lost, stolen or absconded with", according to the suit. 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. Cotten told a Globe and Mail reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had frozen the exchanges bank accounts. So, Patryn: shit-stirrer, criminal mastermind or another one beguiled by Cotten? He would grow up to be a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and run Canadas largest crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX, before dying under bizarre circumstances in 2018, leaving investors looking for a missing $180 million Canadian dollars. 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. According to the documentary, thats around the time that Cotten started to invest his money in islands, cars and property, traveling the world while running his exchange. [33], Cotten's will was signed 27 November 2018, twelve days before he allegedly died. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. My sisters not a liar.. Some have speculated his death was a clever ruse and there have been calls to have his body exhumed to prove it was a "fake". Evidence of him faking death: There's lots of bizaare things that are suspicious. He and his wife, Jennifer Robertson, jetted all over the world on private planes, visiting chic locales in Paris, Hawaii, and Morocco. His clients were locked out of about $250 million, and investigators later. Jennifer RobertsonGerry Cotten,. "So far, nothing's been found. He would then use this crypto to make investments himself on other digital exchanges as he furnished his own pockets at the expense of his investors, according to accounting firm Ernst & Young. And who dies from Crohns disease at 24 years old? 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. , 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. "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. "What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery," according to Chainalysis. 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. Both Canadas tax authorities and the FBI are also investigating the company. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. [1], The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. Gerald Cotten is allegedly meant to have died from Crohn's disease after the exchange crashed. https://bit.ly/3cAIH4j Newest Vid's https://bit.ly/3JkFmEqFollow Us On Facebook https://bit.ly/3oh5cS8Gerald Cotten or Gerry Cotten's life and tragic passing are shrouded in mystery. For instance, had Cottens death certificate, which spelled his name as Cott, , been faked? Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! [49], On 5 March 2019, Justice Wood extended Quadriga's court protection to 23 April. But when the banks, the law, and the. Cotten's widow has rarely spoken publicly, but in an affidavit has described herself as being subject to "slanderous comments" over accusations her husband faked his death. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten. Jennifer Robertson, the widow of QuadrigaCX founder Gerald (Gerry) Cotten, will be allowed to keep more than $90,000 cash and a Jeep Cherokee in a settlement agreement with the company's bankruptcy trustee. Then, as their accounts accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, Gerald passed unexpectedly, taking the passwords to the accounts to his grave. 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. The teen, a bright computer enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, ran the operation on an online forum called TalkGold . [33] After the exchange was put into maintenance mode for several days in January, they announced on the 31st that they were applying for creditor protection. [9][10], The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were reportedly investigating the company. Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt). Though some dont believe Mr Cotten is really gone, the money from Quadriga is. It stated that Gerald Cotten committed fraud by opening accounts under aliases and crediting himself with fictitious currency and crypto asset balances, which he traded with unsuspecting clients and that "What happened at Quadriga was an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology. Image Credit: CTV Your Morning/YouTube.