Gerald Cotten died suddenly of Crohn's disease - or did he? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Citing decomposition concerns, lawyers requested the exhumation be completed no later than spring 2020. "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". 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. 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. Reported by Fansided, Globe and Mail journalist Nathan Vanderklippe spoke to Dr. Sharma, who dealt with Cotten when he came into the hospital. Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions. 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. 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. A sneak preview of the Netflix doc contains images that suggest the documentary will show the investors dive deeper into these conspiracies. 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. 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. firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? [19] Other than a few contractors, it had no employees, offices or bank accounts thereafter. His death certificate was issued by the Indian authorities and contains an incorrect spelling of his name. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two Globe and Mail reporters followed up on the case. Was the CEOknown for his luxurious lifestyle, which included jets, supercars and vacationsmurdered by a mob debt collector or a jealous lover? The circumstances are dodgy that they chose to honeymoon to India and he suddenly dies from complications of Crohn's disease. It was a perfect match, sparked up on Tinder, she said in the documentary. 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. He hopes the Netflix doc will get authorities to "move their asses and do something about it" but also to raise awareness "so it doesn't happen to other people". 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? His body was repatriated to . 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. 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. Robertsons sister, for the record, doesnt think that Cotten had fabricated his relationship with Jennifer. Even after Cotten's death news, some people still believe that he is alive, and one of the main reasons is because of his mysterious death. [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. lets break it all down. Indeed, QuadrigaCX launched just three months after sceptre put out a call to build a crypto exchange. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars. 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? Gerald Cotten. Fifteen years later, Mr Cotten, known as Gerry, would be accused of swindling people online of a much bigger prize. I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. Cotten told a Globe and Mail reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had frozen the exchanges bank accounts. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. Netflix Special on Bitcoin Fraudster Gerald Cotten, His Wife, and QuadrigaCX. When Canadian blockchain whiz Gerald Cotten died unexpectedly last year, hundreds of millions of dollars in investor funds vanished into the crypto ether. And for some, things still looked suspicious. His will was signed off just two weeks before he and wife Jennifer Robertson travelled to India on their honeymoon. [47], Gerald Cotten's widow has maintained that she knew nothing about her husband's activities and agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets. 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. 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. 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. Despite no concrete evidenceindeed, the murdered mans. He convinced tons of investors to fork over their money so he could invest it into Crypto. The circumstances sparked speculation from some in the crypto community that the CEO faked his death and stole his clients' money. 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. 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. Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt). His clients were locked out of about $250 million, and investigators later. 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. [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. He graduated from York with a bachelor of business administration in 2010. He died just nine days into his honeymoon due to an acute stomach ache. Browse Locations. 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. 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. reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. [16] In 2014 only C$7.4 million worth of bitcoin were exchanged on Quadriga. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two. Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King. , one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. 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. The public didnt learn about the death for another 36 days, until January 2019. I just prayed. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. Was he avoiding something or someone? Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Some have speculated that Gerald Cotten faked his own death and basically got a knock-off death certificate in India or perhaps he was killed by his business partners but even the death itself is incredibly suspicious. I put myself into a deep hole and the only way to dig out of it was to sell my house.. 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 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. 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. Image Credit: CTV Your Morning/YouTube. According to an investigation by Canada's Globe and Mail, Cotten. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. But pour in it did. When Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, the passcodes for his cryptocurrency exchange died with him. Cotten and Patryn's past: He's also been linked to many other "Cryptocurrency markets" in the past with his old partner Patryn who has changed his name twice because he was charged with laundering money. [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. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Fourteen trading accounts that were also examined were used to trade on other exchanges. Did he Die? A computer issue wiped $14 million of Ethereum off the exchange. [42] Another three empty wallets were believed to possibly be owned by Quadriga. 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. Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten. I think there were a couple years when it ran legitimately I dont think Gerry could have imagined a future with money pouring in the way it eventually did.. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. Gerald Cotten Still Alive ? I could have put it in stocks. Dhanani also had pleaded guilty to burglary and grand theft charges and had been deported to Canada. 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. The business was run from Cotten's encrypted laptop from Cotten's home in Fall River, Nova Scotia. 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. [21], Throughout 2018, as Bitcoin prices crashed, customers of the exchange reported delays when attempting to withdraw dollars. [7][8], Quadriga co-founder Michael Patryn was identified by The Globe and Mail as Omar Dhanani, who was convicted on identity theft charges in the U.S. and served 18 months in Federal prison. Netflixs latest true crime documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King, has arrived on the streaming platforms extensive catalog of intriguing documentaries. Then you get rid of the fees. Netflixs documentary definitely seems to be in the corner that Cotten did die, despite the mystery surrounding his death. The dude literally said that comment as a complete joke, and I even . 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. ET. seeks to unravel the mystery of Gerald Cotten, the CEO of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, who died in 2018. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. The 33-year-old has attempted to get his money back in a lawsuit, but hasn't had any luck as yet. Then it emerged that Jennifer had legally changed her name three times in the past few years, and a man sharing one of her former last names was at the center of an unsolved murder case. 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. I ended up losing my life savings I lost $400,000, Tong Zou, a tech worker quoted in the film, says. [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. "At that time, there was nothing I could do. G erald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. [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 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. "What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery," according to Chainalysis. After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. It just wasnt there. (His wife says he is in fact dead and witnessed his funeral). Gerald Cotten, who was born on May 11th, 1988, was raised in Belleville, Ontario, before relocating to Toronto to enroll at York University's Schulich School of Business. Gerald Cotten, 30, held the virtual keys to a whopping $137 . Angry and suspicious investors congregated on Reddit and Telegram to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}.