Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt). [17], In 2016, Cotten became the sole director of Quadriga when all the other directors resigned. [15] He learned about Bitcoin in Toronto and travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he founded Quadriga in November 2013 with Michael Patryn. 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. 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". When Taylor Monahan, founder of MyCrypto, examined the exchanges cold wallets, she couldnt find the lost crypto. 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. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Shortly after, the exchange stopped working entirely. Further complicating the matter the company's co-founder Michael Patryn was revealed to actually be a man named Omar Dhanani, who had previously been convicted in the US of identity fraud. Indeed, QuadrigaCX launched just three months after sceptre put out a call to build a crypto exchange. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. 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. Investors tried to pull their money from Quadriga, but sometimes faced month-long delays. 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. Rather than pay customers via bank wires, they were told to come to a nondescript building in Laval, Quebec to pick up the cash. 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. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. 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. 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. started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? Gerald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. Likewise, the public was not much intrigued about their lives up until . 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. For instance, had Cottens death certificate, which spelled his name as Cott, , been faked? , one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. Thinking that Jennifer had murdered Cotten, the Telegram group spiraled out of control. 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. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? It certainly started to look like fraud, said one anonymous investor in the doc. A C$100,000 trust fund was made to provide lifelong care for Cotten's two chihuahuas in case of Robertson's death. https://bit.ly/3cAIH4j Newest Vid's https:. Quadriga had four employees in 2015 with offices in Vancouver and Toronto, but ran out of money by June 2015. [48], On 5 February 2019, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael J. 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. Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. 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. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten died in 2018, taking password to access funds with him Credit: Netflix. [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. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings. [2], In January 2019 Ernst & Young reported that Quadriga did not have a bank account, but instead used third-party payment processors. 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". It's clear to me that Cotten gave himself millions of dollars worth of crypto as the owner to trade people fake crypto and give himself millions of dollars. Here's a link to the BlackHat forum. Lived In Los Angeles CA, Austin TX, Van Nuys CA . Customers reported that once they arrived, there was nobody in the office, or that there was no cash to be disbursed. Now . You transferred them $1,000 and you could see the crypto in your account. I didnt know that Gerry was married, he says. [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. 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. Cotten In 2013 was looking for a programmer to help him create a bitcoin marketplace using the account name Murdoch1337 on a BlackHat Forum and this account was last seen active in August 2019 at this point he should have been "dead" for a long time. 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. [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. [47], Gerald Cotten's widow has maintained that she knew nothing about her husband's activities and agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets. Reported by Fansided, Globe and Mail journalist Nathan Vanderklippe spoke to Dr. Sharma, who dealt with Cotten when he came into the hospital. Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. Using a reputable custodian to hold the private keys outside the company is perhaps the best option to ensure these codes are not lost, Erik Wilgenhof Plante, the former CCO of the exchange BeQuant, told The Independent at the time. March 30, 2022. 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. After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. There were other problems around that time. In November 2018 the case was decided with the accounts going to the court to decide the ownership individually. 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. [17] In June 2017, Quadriga announced that they had lost ethereum worth US$14 million due to a smart contract error. 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. Furious investors continue to fight a legal battle to try and have Cotten's body exhumed as they believe his death was a cut and run scam. 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. 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. 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. And for some, things still looked suspicious. 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. 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. Mr Cotten, 30 at the time of his death, seemed to be living the dream life of a financial titan. It apparently had no formal accounting system. Quadriga's customers are owed C$260 million in cryptocurrency and cash. 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. Did he Die? It left Robertson the entire C$9.6-million estate and named her as the trustee. - October, November, December - during all that time," he said. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/hiring-a-programmer-website-like-bitstamp-bitcoin-trading-project.605236/. Gerald Cotten, 30, held the virtual keys to a whopping $137 . The mystery of Cotten and Quadriga is now the subject of podcasts Exit Scam and A Death In Cryptoland. Gerald Gerry Cotten is the founder of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga Fintech Solutions and is at the helm of a groundbreaking investment scam that the Netflix documentary investigates. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. [50], Quadriga's lawyer, the firm Stewart McKelvey, withdrew from the case due to a potential conflict of interest. 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. But Bitcoin crashed at the end of 2018, and Cottens flashy lifestyle needed cash to sustain itself. , 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. did gerry and his wife fake his passing and steal the money? [54], A 2021 8-episode podcast entitled Exit Scam followed the buildup of Quadriga, and investigated whether Gerald Cotten had faked his own death. 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. Premieres in 2022 pic.twitter.com/rP9iFJHkWm. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars. 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. Still, questions about the missing money only mounted when two Globe and Mail reporters followed up on the case. He was 30-years-old. 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 dude literally said that comment as a complete joke, and I even . The media dragged Gerald Cotten's wife, Jennifer Robertson, into the spotlight after his mysterious death. Then, out of the blue, one Mike Patryn joined the Telegram group that investors were using to discuss conspiracies. By Robin Hill-Gray. Some 76,000 investors like Zou collectively lost out. Its the swindler story you havent heard of until now. [7] Meanwhile, in order to manage the finances of the company during the process, a third-party monitor, Ernst & Young, was appointed. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? Then the Ontario Securities Commission opened an investigation. goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. So the Globe goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider "Once I deposited it, it was basically gone.". TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KING, a DONT F*CK WITH CATS-style investigative thriller, is now streaming on Netflix. According to an investigation by Canada's Globe and Mail, Cotten. 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. The thing is, a CEOs death shouldnt lock customers out of their money. 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. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. (His wife says he is in fact dead and witnessed his funeral). 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. California (2) Massachusetts (1) Texas (2) Refine Your Search Results. 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. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. Either the funds were never received or quickly went missing. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? [52], The CBC released a 6-episode podcast about Quadriga and the death of its founder called A Death in Cryptoland. The investors found more questions than answers. Supposedly, Cottens business associates didnt even know he was married. The circumstances are dodgy that they chose to honeymoon to India and he suddenly dies from complications of Crohn's disease. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. There's only two people who really know what happened in India. 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? 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 Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 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. 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. [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. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of his investors' Bitcoin funds. Gerald Cotten is a bitcoin millionaire from Canada whose death, supposedly from complications relating to Crohn's disease, is now being questioned. It sucks.". They reported that Jennifer said she couldnt get into Cottens laptops, 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. Quadriga started by doing only local trades. But, due to the strict security of crypto, we may never know. 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. [42], Quadriga continued to accept deposits until 26 January. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. 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 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. Citing decomposition concerns, lawyers requested the exhumation be completed no later than spring 2020. 'Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King' will be released sometime in 2022. 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. It was alleged that Patryn was involved in a money-laundering ring under a different nameOmar Dhanani. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! One of the Globe reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. Then you get rid of the fees. 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. 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. We explain who Gerald Cotten is, the subject of this documentary, and reveal where he is now, including the mystery surrounding his downfall. 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 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. So, Patryn: shit-stirrer, criminal mastermind or another one beguiled by Cotten? Uncertainty about the missing funds has fueled speculation that Cotten may still be alive. Then Gerald Cotten suddenly died, in December of 2018, from complications with Crohn's disease. Resides in Beverly Hills, CA. Stay up to date with what you want to know. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . My sisters not a liar.. Cotten was young, energetic, passionate about cryptocurrency so when. 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. 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. that after 2016, QuadrigaCX stopped producing consistent data about its holdings, and that large volumes of cryptocurrencies were being sent to foreign crypto exchanges. Now Cottens jet-set lifestyle looked suspicious. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. Robertson has not been accused of any wrongdoing - and has denied any knowledge of her husband's business dealings. Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team?

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