[33], Cotten's will was signed 27 November 2018, twelve days before he allegedly died. There was no autopsy on the body, for instance, and Cotten had signed his will two weeks after he diedleaving his riches to Jennifer. I believe this is the reason why Quadriga could be formed because they made a fortune from Scamming before Quadriga. Where Is Gerald Cotten Now? - Vimbuzz.com But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. 5 Customers reported that once they arrived, there was nobody in the office, or that there was no cash to be disbursed. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? Is Gerald Cotten Still Alive? Did He Really Die? - The Cinemaholic Image Credit: CTV Your Morning/YouTube. [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. Then in January, 2019, Cottens wife Jennifer Robertson announced that he had died a month earlier. ET. 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. "You appear dead for a few days, until you get the cure," the source said. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. [15] He learned about Bitcoin in Toronto and travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he founded Quadriga in November 2013 with Michael Patryn. 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? Netflix has seen a boom with its true-crime docuseries, from 'Tiger King' to 'Making a Murderer.' Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Je [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two. Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions. 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. [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. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of his investors' Bitcoin funds. Either the funds were never received or quickly went missing. Then, as their accounts accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, Gerald passed unexpectedly, taking the passwords to the accounts to his grave. Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. 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. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! I really prayed it wasn't a scam. Cottens death will likely remain a mystery, with some believing that he is still residing somewhere in the world with the stolen money. The 33-year-old has attempted to get his money back in a lawsuit, but hasn't had any luck as yet. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. In December 2018, Cotten died during his honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, in Jaipur, India. 'The Crypto King': Who is Gerald Cotten and Where is Gerry Now? - Newsweek #GeraldCottenReallyDead #GeraldCottenStillAliveGerald Cotten Really Dead ? We just send money from our Bitcoin app directly to those paper wallets, and keep it safe that way. And meanwhile, Dead Man's Switch director Sheona McDonald said: "There's only two people who really know what happened in India.". But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. Forensic accountants discovered that Gerry was trading against fake users, crediting their account with fake currencies and pocketing the cash, using the proceeds to play the crypto market. About C$1.2 billion worth of bitcoin was exchanged on Quadriga. [1], The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. 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. 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. 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. [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. Gerald Cotten Really Dead ? Gerald Cotten Still Alive ? - Watch Full 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.. Dhanani also had pleaded guilty to burglary and grand theft charges and had been deported to Canada. Quadriga CX was left owning its 76,000 investors around $215million (CAD). 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. Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk, 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. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? My sisters not a liar.. Both Canadas tax authorities and the FBI are also investigating the company. 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. Facebook / Remembering Gerry Cotten In the weeks since Quadriga Fintech Solutions Corp. belatedly made his death public, the exchange's furious users have raised questions. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. [47], Gerald Cotten's widow has maintained that she knew nothing about her husband's activities and agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets. Browse Locations. Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. Mystery of rogue Bitcoin trader who 'died' taking with him password to as well as other partner offers and accept our. Gerald Cotten died suddenly of Crohn's disease - or did he? [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. CRYPTO scams are popping up all over the internet. - October, November, December - during all that time," he said. After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. Despite no concrete evidenceindeed, the murdered mans. [19] Other than a few contractors, it had no employees, offices or bank accounts thereafter. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. The teen, a bright computer enthusiast from Belleville, Ontario, ran the operation on an online forum called TalkGold . 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. Gerald Cotten is allegedly meant to have died from Crohn's disease after the exchange crashed. 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. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Likewise, the public was not much intrigued about their lives up until . Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two Globe and Mail reporters followed up on the case. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? The estate includes an airplane, a sailboat, a 2017 Lexus, and real estate in Nova Scotia and Kelowna, British Columbia. 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. [42], Quadriga continued to accept deposits until 26 January. 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. Netflix Special Explores Gerald Cotten's Wife and the QuadrigaCX Scandal [51], A documentary titled Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery about the story of Gerald Cotten premiered at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. 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. Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt). It left Robertson the entire C$9.6-million estate and named her as the trustee. The doctor, reported the Globe, initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. Exit Scam host Aaron Lammer told CoinDesk: "My read was that, on some level, Gerry was addicted to scamming, "Addicted to stealing peoples money. [30], According to Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, he died on 9 December 2018 while travelling in India. [7][8] On 8 April 2019 the firm entered bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as the possibility of a successful reorganization appeared to be remote. [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. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. "I kept asking them: Where's my money? The business was run from Cotten's encrypted laptop from Cotten's home in Fall River, Nova Scotia. The podcast was hosted by Takara Small. 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. November 28, 2022 by Nurudeen. 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. "It just makes me more depressed about it," Zou told Sky News. 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. An official investigation concluded that Quadriga was"an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology". Fourteen trading accounts that were also examined were used to trade on other exchanges. Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Jennifer in India, Cotten has been recast since his death as a thrill-seeking scammer, Michael Patryn - real name Omar Dhanani - had previously been convicted of identity fraud, Bitcoin miner electrocuted to death by his computer after forcing it to churn out endless amounts of crypto. Criminal probes continue by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI as leading digital investing publication Coindesk branded his death as the "crypto's biggest mystery". Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings.