Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company. And not even he thinks that Gerald is deadnor did he ever meet his wife. All Filters. Now Cottens jet-set lifestyle looked suspicious. Browse Locations. Image Source: Social Media. How Gerald Cotten, the "Crypto King," Really Died - Bustle In other news, Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King | Official Trailer | Netflix, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vW2BPQ15OSw/hqdefault.jpg. ", 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.". A computer issue wiped $14 million of Ethereum off the exchange. [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. A Canadian bank froze another $21 million of funds. Reported by Fansided, Globe and Mail journalist Nathan Vanderklippe spoke to Dr. Sharma, who dealt with Cotten when he came into the hospital. The streaming service announced the feature alongside a slate of upcoming true-crime projects last week. [47], Gerald Cotten's widow has maintained that she knew nothing about her husband's activities and agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets. Mystery of rogue Bitcoin trader who 'died' taking with - The Sun 4 people named Gerald Betzen found in California, Texas and Massachusetts. She has also said she has no idea what the passwords are to access sequestered customer funds, and that it wasnt written down anywhere. The doctor, reported the Globe, initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). Netflix's 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. Mystery of rogue Bitcoin trader who 'died' taking with him password to He and his wife, Jennifer Robertson, jetted all over the world on private planes, visiting chic locales in Paris, Hawaii, and Morocco. Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. And with the mystery of Quadriga still being unraveled by the Feds, Mounties, amateur sleuths and investigative journalists - the question remains what happened to Cotten? Gerald Cotten was the talk of the cryptocurrency world in Canada after he introduced QuadrigaCX, a place where investors could buy and sell cryptocurrency. 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. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with stealing millions from Quadrigas customers. Cotten also took flying lessons as he appeared to be possibly preparing for a life on the run. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. Rather than pay customers via bank wires, they were told to come to a nondescript building in Laval, Quebec to pick up the cash. [11] Lawyers for the customers of the exchange have asked that Cotten's body be exhumed.[12]. [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. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops delivered daily to your inbox. Overcast with rain showers at times. (Neither men were charged in connection with Liberty Reserve). [21], Throughout 2018, as Bitcoin prices crashed, customers of the exchange reported delays when attempting to withdraw dollars. 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. When Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, the passcodes for his cryptocurrency exchange died with him. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? : r/QuadrigaCX - reddit [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. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. CRYPTO scams are popping up all over the internet. Indeed, QuadrigaCX launched just three months after sceptre put out a call to build a crypto exchange. 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. 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. But months later, customers still couldnt take their money out. 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? I could have put it in stocks. 'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' will be released sometime in 2022. [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. 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. did gerry and his wife fake his passing and steal the money? Dying from Crohn's disease when only 1.6% of sufferers from this disease die of it and to happen to die from . But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. How did Gerald Cotten die? A Quadriga mystery, from India to Canada and 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. 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. 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. X-rays. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . It has led the pack of other streaming giants, producing the most projects in the true-crime genre as of 2020. I ended up losing my life savings I lost $400,000, Tong Zou, a tech worker quoted in the film, says. Some speculate that Cotten, who suffered with Crohn's disease, might actually be alive. After beginning as an entrepreneur, Cotten founded Quadriga Fintech Solutions in 2013 and the company evolved to become the largest crypto exchange in the country, and it even helped to legitimize Bitcoin. started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. [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. Gerald Cotten. reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. "I couldn't get any sleep. Where was the rest of the money? After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. 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. 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. Someone tracked Patryn to a scam forum called TalkGold, where Patryn talked to one user in particular, sceptre, a bunch. Gerald Cotten Really Dead ? Gerald Cotten Still Alive ? - Watch Full Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. Dhanani also had pleaded guilty to burglary and grand theft charges and had been deported to Canada. 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. The shocking story has been recounted in a new Netflix documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt For The Crypto King. Jilted investors of Cotton's crypto firm QuadrigaCX have demanded his corpse be exhumed and tests run to confirm its his body. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. [45], In June 2020, the Ontario Securities Commission officially concluded that Quadriga was indeed a fraud and a Ponzi scheme. The crypto entrepreneur bought increasingly lavish purchases: a $600,000 yacht, a high-end Lexus, 17 homes in Canada, a plane. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. Then the Ontario Securities Commission opened an investigation. He graduated from York in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. There's only two people who really know what happened in India. Something was afoot. But, due to the strict security of crypto, we may never know. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. [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. 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. To add credence to the theory that he faked his own death and is still alive, Bloomberg reported that the crypto exchange founder filed his will just 12 days before he apparently died. A lost password, a sudden death and $180M in missing crypto 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. Lawyers for customers of an insolvent cryptocurrency exchange have asked police to exhume the body of the companys founder, amid efforts to recover about $190m in Bitcoin which were locked in an online black hole after his death. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. 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. Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions. We just send money from our Bitcoin app directly to those paper wallets, and keep it safe that way. The estate includes an airplane, a sailboat, a 2017 Lexus, and real estate in Nova Scotia and Kelowna, British Columbia. 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. The OSC. [49], On 5 March 2019, Justice Wood extended Quadriga's court protection to 23 April. "At that time, there was nothing I could do. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. at the time Canadas largest cryptocurrency exchange, Gerald Cotten, 30, died in questionable circumstances, Canadian company founder took crucial password to the grave. Finally, the OSC discovered something that cracked the case wide open. I just prayed. [31], Robertson filed an affidavit on behalf of the company which included a "Statement of Death" for Cotten, filed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 12 December 2018. When Taylor Monahan, founder of MyCrypto, examined the exchanges cold wallets, she couldnt find the lost crypto. His body was embalmed and sent back to Canada for a closed-casket funeral. I lost $500,000 life savings in cryptocurrency after 'trader DIED with NOW WATCH: Netflix is headed for a huge profit milestone in 2018, Personal Finance Insider's picks for best cryptocurrency exchanges. But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. Here's a link to the BlackHat forum. Directed by Luke Sewell, the original Netflix documentary Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King follows a group of cryptocurrency investors hired to investigate the death of exchange founder Gerry Cotten and the alleged $250 million that he stole from them. Obituary -Gerald Cotten Wife, Death Cause, Alive or Death? Wikipedia [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. (India is notorious for forging fake death certificates by paying people off). Thats when the. The mystery of Cotten and Quadriga is now the subject of podcasts Exit Scam and A Death In Cryptoland. There was no way of getting my money back. [50], Quadriga's lawyer, the firm Stewart McKelvey, withdrew from the case due to a potential conflict of interest. His death sparked online debates and string theories on Reddit and. When Canadian blockchain whiz Gerald Cotten died unexpectedly last year, hundreds of millions of dollars in investor funds vanished into the crypto ether. No longer a likable nerd, investors thought that Gerald, now sceptre, had been operating scams since he was 15. [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. He was 30-years-old. Quadriga CX was left owning its 76,000 investors around $215million (CAD). "I could have invested it in real estate. 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. 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. The podcast was hosted by Takara Small. 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. Wood ordered a "30-day stay that precludes filing of claims against Quadriga", which is a temporary legal protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, a legal status that allows insolvent corporations to restructure their business and financial affairs. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. 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. 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. Even today, some investors remain unconvinced that Cotten really is dead. The firm launched in 2014 amid a spectacular rise in the price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and was handling $1 billion in trades by 2017. 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. My sisters not a liar.. 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. [33] Aaron Matthews served as Director of Operations. Investors tried to pull their money from Quadriga, but sometimes faced month-long delays. [42], Quadriga continued to accept deposits until 26 January. Following Quadrigas implosion in 2019, it was investigated by the Ontario Securities Commission, which concluded that, "what happened at Quadriga was an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology. 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. Netflix Special Explores Gerald Cotten's Wife and the QuadrigaCX Scandal Jennifer Robertson (Quadriga) - Wikipedia Gerald Betzen (4 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address - Spokeo Now . 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. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? There were other problems around that time. The media dragged Gerald Cotten's wife, Jennifer Robertson, into the spotlight after his mysterious death. Gerald Cotten's body should be exhumed, investors in QuadrigaCX tell Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. And, wildly, was Jennifer, his wife, even. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. Stay up to date with what you want to know. His body was repatriated to . Gerald Cotten is a bitcoin millionaire from Canada whose death, supposedly from complications relating to Crohn's disease, is now being questioned. Cotten neglected to pass on the passwords to the accounts, and in 2019, when investigators tracked down Cotten's digital wallets, all the money was gone. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). 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. Photo by Gaetano Cessati on Unsplash. On the 9th, he allegedly died after episodes of cardiac arrest. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! 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. 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. He died just nine days into his honeymoon due to an acute stomach ache. [28], Quadriga used an unusual teller-window system for customers to withdraw their money. Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. 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. We explain how to spot them. 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. 'Bitcoin widow' reveals how she fell victim to her own husband's $215m I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. We explain who Gerald Cotten is, the subject of this documentary, and reveal where he is now, including the mystery surrounding his downfall. Official investigations into the matter have yet to produce any definitive answers. Mar. 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. Fifteen years later, Mr Cotten, known as Gerry, would be accused of swindling people online of a much bigger prize. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. "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. Its the swindler story you havent heard of until now. The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Cotten was young, energetic, passionate about cryptocurrency so when. The OSC tugged on the same thread, but neither could get hold of him. In December 2018, Cotten died during his honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, in Jaipur, India. , one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. ", 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. [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. [15] He learned about Bitcoin in Toronto and travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he founded Quadriga in November 2013 with Michael Patryn. About C$1.2 billion worth of bitcoin was exchanged on Quadriga. But pour in it did. Jilted investors in a defunct cryptocurrency company want to confirm the death of the business's founder by exhuming his remains. 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. [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. Zou resorted to the cryptocurrency scheme to avoid bank charges when moving Vancouver, shifting his money from the US to a Canadian account. A new Netflix true-crime documentary is tackling a bizarre story from the world of cryptocurrency. Investors want QuadrigaCX founder Gerald Cotten's remains exhumed Quadriga started by doing only local trades. A sneak preview of the Netflix doc contains images that suggest the documentary will show the investors dive deeper into these conspiracies. ^ "Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions". Cbc.ca. The couple were on their honeymoon in India, where Jennifer had dreams of opening an orphanage. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. Resides in Beverly Hills, CA.
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