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. Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is now streaming on Netflix. [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. The mystery of Cotten and Quadriga is now the subject of podcasts Exit Scam and A Death In Cryptoland. When he was a 15-year-old in Belleville, Ont., Gerald Cotten was selling get-rich-quick schemes on online forums that taught him how to deceive investors and cover his tracks. (Neither men were charged in connection with Liberty Reserve). Robertsons sister, for the record, doesnt think that Cotten had fabricated his relationship with Jennifer. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. Browse Locations. His death certificate was issued by the Indian authorities and contains an incorrect spelling of his name. X-rays. 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. [48], On 5 February 2019, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael J. 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. Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. 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. "I couldn't get any sleep. Gerald Cotten had an estimated net worth of $80 million at the time of his death. Ernst & Young was able to recover $24m in cash and $9m in assets held by Robertson. Tong Zou is one of thousands of customers left seriously out of pocket following Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten's mysterious death in 2018 at the age of 30. "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". at the time Canadas largest cryptocurrency exchange, Gerald Cotten, 30, died in questionable circumstances, Canadian company founder took crucial password to the grave. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of his investors' Bitcoin funds. The shocking story has been recounted in a new Netflix documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt For The Crypto King. reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. Cops believe that Quadriga CX was actually an wide-ranging Ponzi scheme - and Cotten would use fake accounts under the name "Chris Markay" to "buy" his customers Bitcoin using fake cash. The thing is, a CEOs death shouldnt lock customers out of their money. Overcast with rain showers at times. 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. 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. She had accompanied him to a hospital in Jaipur the previous day and he was diagnosed with septic shock, perforation, peritonitis, and intestinal obstruction. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? (India is notorious for forging fake death certificates by paying people off). goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. And, wildly, was Jennifer, his wife, even real? Gerald Cotten, 30, held the virtual keys to a whopping $137 . He was one of the wealthiest people in the crypto world, and his company was at its pinnacle. Image Source: Social Media. The Crypto King, aka Gerald "Gerry" Cotten, died in 2018, but his mysterious death is still a subject of controversy today. Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. November 28, 2022 by Nurudeen. 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. The public didnt learn about the death for another 36 days, until January 2019. Given the intrigue, some went so far as to question whether Mr Cotten had really died and demanded his body be exhumed. "It just makes me more depressed about it," Zou told Sky News. The circumstances sparked speculation from some in the crypto community that the CEO faked his death and stole his clients' money. I just prayed. 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. The doctor, reported the Globe, initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. 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. On 10 December, a death certificate was issued by the local municipality as well as a "no objection certificate" from the police to return the body to Nova Scotia. [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. [42], Quadriga continued to accept deposits until 26 January. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. 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. 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. I'm new to this subreddit, I apologise if anything I have said breaks the rules. Here's my take on Gerald Cotten and his suspicious death. The crypto entrepreneur bought increasingly lavish purchases: a $600,000 yacht, a high-end Lexus, 17 homes in Canada, a plane. So the. Jilted investors in a defunct cryptocurrency company want to confirm the death of the business's founder by exhuming his remains. https://bit.ly/3cAIH4j Newest Vid's https:. [16] In 2014 only C$7.4 million worth of bitcoin were exchanged on Quadriga. Its the swindler story you havent heard of until now. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops delivered daily to your inbox. He convinced tons of investors to fork over their money so he could invest it into Crypto. [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. Gerald Cleophas Betzen, 68. Cotten had allegedly told his wife he would create a mechanism that would allow her to access all of his crypto-related passwords should he die but. Here's my take on Gerald Cotten and his suspicious death. Premieres in 2022 pic.twitter.com/rP9iFJHkWm. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. He was 30-years-old. 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 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. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. 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 media dragged Gerald Cotten's wife, Jennifer Robertson, into the spotlight after his mysterious death. Official investigations into the matter have yet to produce any definitive answers. In January 2014 they installed the second Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver. Someone tracked Patryn to a scam forum called TalkGold, where Patryn talked to one user in particular, sceptre, a bunch. 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. 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. "It did become an obsession.. One source in the doco goes as far as to claim Cotton may have used a substance known as "Haitian zombie powder" to fake his death. [45], In June 2020, the Ontario Securities Commission officially concluded that Quadriga was indeed a fraud and a Ponzi scheme. For instance, had Cottens death certificate, which spelled his name as Cottan, been faked? [54], A 2021 8-episode podcast entitled Exit Scam followed the buildup of Quadriga, and investigated whether Gerald Cotten had faked his own death. His body was repatriated to Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The investors found more questions than answers. [52], The CBC released a 6-episode podcast about Quadriga and the death of its founder called A Death in Cryptoland. "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. 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. Cotten encrypted and stored about $190 million worth of his customers' Bitcoin caches and held sole responsibility for the passwords needed to access those funds. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. 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. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. Cbc.ca. 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". 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. In that case, $851 million entrusted to Crypto Capital had been "lost, stolen or absconded with", according to the suit. 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. [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. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. 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. And not even he thinks that Gerald is deadnor did he ever meet his wife. [17], In 2016, Cotten became the sole director of Quadriga when all the other directors resigned. The OSC. 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. 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. So his spiral down into a life of crime was either pure greed or him seeking the thrill. CIBC stated that they could not determine the ownership of the money and could not contact Cotten or Quadriga. Then in January, 2019, Cottens wife Jennifer Robertson announced that he had died a month earlier. Gerald Cotten is allegedly meant to have died from Crohns disease after the exchange crashed. Robertson has denied any knowledge of her husband's wrongdoing - and in 2019 returned $9million to the company to repay users. Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. Was he avoiding something or someone? Netflix has tried to get to the bottom of things in its new 90-minute doc; read on to uncover the wild tale of Gerald Cotten. Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Je The only catch: only Gerry knew the passwords to the companys crypto-vaults. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with stealing millions from Quadrigas customers. Then the Ontario Securities Commission opened an investigation. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. You transferred them $1,000 and you could see the crypto in your account. His body was embalmed and sent back to Canada for a closed-casket funeral. 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. TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING, a DONT F*CK WITH CATS-style investigative thriller, is now streaming on Netflix. 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. There's a small chance that someone was investigating his old accounts and that they accessed his BlackHat but it's very unlikely. 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. Quadriga CX was left owning its 76,000 investors around $215million (CAD). Netflixs documentary definitely seems to be in the corner that Cotten did die, despite the mystery surrounding his death. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. Investigations into the firm revealed that Mr Cotten made numerous fake accounts on Quadriga to influence trades on the platform, at one time being involved personally in 87 per cent of transactions. There was no way of getting my money back. [17] Michael Gastauer, Chief Executive of WB21, has been named in a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a US$165 million fraud. [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. Then Gerald Cotten suddenly died, in December of 2018, from complications with Crohn's disease. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Fifteen years later, Mr Cotten, known as Gerry, would be accused of swindling people online of a much bigger prize. Now . The podcast was reported by Aaron Lammer and Lane Brown.[55]. 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. Was the CEOknown for his luxurious lifestyle, which included jets, supercars and vacationsmurdered by a mob debt collector or a jealous lover? But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. Quadriga Fintech Solutions was the owner and operator of QuadrigaCX, which was believed to be Canada's largest cryptocurrency 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.. He graduated from York with a bachelor of business administration in 2010. Cotten passed away from complications that arose from Crohn's disease while on a honeymoon in Indiaapparently taking some $215 million of customer funds to the grave. Both Canadas tax authorities and the FBI are also investigating the company. "At that time, there was nothing I could do. Then, out of the blue, one Mike Patryn joined the Telegram group that investors were using to discuss conspiracies. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Was Patryn, whom employees described as a macho, terrifying character, calling the shots, not Cotten? March 30, 2022. And for some, things still looked suspicious. 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. did gerry and his wife fake his passing and steal the money? 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. 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. 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. There is a clear lesson here that having a single person owning this information creates a huge vulnerability.. Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. Either this is a 1 in 100 million coincidence or he is still alive. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. 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. Gerald Cotten is still alive (proof) I remember exactly 2 and a half weeks ago, someone on this subreddit that was jokingly talking about gerald said "Watch Quadriga say that they can't access cold wallets because Gerald died and he was the only one with access to the keys". pic.twitter.com/rGymJ5f9Or. He launched QuadrigaCX in 2013, and it quickly became one of the largest crypto exchanges. firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? Lived In Los Angeles CA, Austin TX, Van Nuys CA . Mar. Have something to tell us about this article? I could have put it in stocks. It was a perfect match, sparked up on Tinder, she said in the documentary. , 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. [28], Quadriga used an unusual teller-window system for customers to withdraw their money. Gerald Cotten was the founder of one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Quadriga CX. 5 I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. 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,. Gerald Cotten Still Alive ? 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. Check out: Personal Finance Insider's picks for best cryptocurrency exchanges. [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. The streaming service announced the feature alongside a slate of upcoming true-crime projects last week. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. G erald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. Investors tried to pull their money from Quadriga, but sometimes faced month-long delays. Netflix Special on Bitcoin Fraudster Gerald Cotten, His Wife, and QuadrigaCX. The teen, a bright computer enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, ran the operation on an online forum called TalkGold . Cotten also took flying lessons as he appeared to be possibly preparing for a life on the run. Gerald Cotten died suddenly of Crohn's disease - or did he? 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. We explain how to spot them. 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.
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