Gerald Cotten. He and his wife, Jennifer Robertson, jetted all over the world on private planes, visiting chic locales in Paris, Hawaii, and Morocco. Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, was thought to have had sole access to the funds and coins exchanged on it. 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? He died just nine days into his honeymoon due to an acute stomach ache. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). He appointed his wife as the executor of his estate, handing over a $9million real estate empire, his yacht and his Cessna plane - and he even left his two dogs an inheritance of $100,000. But when the banks, the law, and the. 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. And not even he thinks that Gerald is deadnor did he ever meet his wife. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. His body was repatriated to Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. [9][10], The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were reportedly investigating the company. The estate includes an airplane, a sailboat, a 2017 Lexus, and real estate in Nova Scotia and Kelowna, British Columbia. Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with stealing millions from Quadrigas customers. Quadriga started by doing only local trades. 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? 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. The Netflix documentary will follow investors-turned-investigators looking into theories on the founder's sudden death. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/hiring-a-programmer-website-like-bitstamp-bitcoin-trading-project.605236/. (India is notorious for forging fake death certificates by paying people off). Gerald died while on a honeymoon with his wife Je Business picked up when Bitcoin hit the big time in 2017, reaching prices close to $20,000. A new documentary on his mysterious death called Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery, airing on Discovery+, looks into accusations the crypto king made off with millions in investors' cash. 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. Supposedly, Cottens business associates didnt even know he was married. The Globe and Mail reporters were on the case, and used photos to conclude that they were the same person. "You appear dead for a few days, until you get the cure," the source said. So what exactly happened to Cotten, and is he still alive somewhere sitting on a mountain of stolen crypto? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The streaming service announced the feature alongside a slate of upcoming true-crime projects last week. Cryptocurrency investors locked out of $190m after exchange founder dies, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. Even today, some investors remain unconvinced that Cotten really is dead. 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. Gerald Cotten (born 11 May 1988)[14] lived in Belleville, Ontario before attending the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. One of the. This was my entire savings, built through ten years of work, said one disgruntled customer in the doc. 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. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? 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. CIBC stated that they could not determine the ownership of the money and could not contact Cotten or Quadriga. 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. - October, November, December - during all that time," he said. 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. 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. [54], A 2021 8-episode podcast entitled Exit Scam followed the buildup of Quadriga, and investigated whether Gerald Cotten had faked his own death. [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. Attack on Titan Season 4 Part 4 to release Fall 2023, confirms new trailer, {{#media.media_details}} {{#media.focal_point}}. 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. [1], The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. Both Canadas tax authorities and the FBI are also investigating the company. 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. 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. Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten. His wife Jennifer Robertson said he had promised to create a mechanism that turned thepasswords over to her when he died. We explain how to spot them. Netflix has tried to get to the bottom of things in its, Trust No One depicts Cotten as a nerdy, happy-go-lucky, and charming CEO, who was knee-deep in, reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had, The investors found more questions than answers. Investors tried to pull their money from Quadriga, but sometimes faced month-long delays. 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. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . Now . 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. 5 The couple were on their honeymoon in India, where Jennifer had dreams of opening an orphanage. 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. Quadriga's customers are owed C$260 million in cryptocurrency and cash. Soon after his death, however, reports surfaced that nearly 80,000 users of QuadrigaCX at the time Canadas largest cryptocurrency exchange were unable to access funds totalling more $190m. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own death. Its the swindler story you havent heard of until now. Likewise, the public was not much intrigued about their lives up until . I could have put it in stocks. (Neither men were charged in connection with Liberty Reserve). No longer a likable nerd, investors thought that Gerald, now sceptre, had been operating scams since he was 15. Either this is a 1 in 100 million coincidence or he is still alive. Netflix Special on Bitcoin Fraudster Gerald Cotten, His Wife, and QuadrigaCX. "[46] The Official Ontario Securities report on Quadriga is attached here. [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. His clients were locked out of about $250 million, and investigators later. "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. [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. So, Patryn: shit-stirrer, criminal mastermind or another one beguiled by Cotten? 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. 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. (His wife says he is in fact dead and witnessed his funeral). And for some, things still looked suspicious. "It just makes me more depressed about it," Zou told Sky News. 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. 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. [30], According to Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, he died on 9 December 2018 while travelling in India. 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. It certainly started to look like fraud, said one anonymous investor in the doc. Then, as their accounts accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, Gerald passed unexpectedly, taking the passwords to the accounts to his grave. 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. 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. 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". Dying from Crohn's disease when only 1.6% of sufferers from this disease die of it and to happen to die from . [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. Shortly after, the exchange stopped working entirely. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. 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.. [7] Meanwhile, in order to manage the finances of the company during the process, a third-party monitor, Ernst & Young, was appointed. Netflixs documentary definitely seems to be in the corner that Cotten did die, despite the mystery surrounding his death. Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is now streaming on Netflix. 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. She says she never received the passwords. Robertson has not been accused of any wrongdoing - and has denied any knowledge of her husband's business dealings. His body was repatriated to . It sucks.". It was a perfect match, sparked up on Tinder, she said in the documentary. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten died in 2018, taking password to access funds with him Credit: Netflix. Re-thinking indemnification for smart contract risks", "Bitcoin investors face long delays cashing out, criticize two B.C. 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. "I kept asking them: Where's my money? "So far, nothing's been found. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. https://bit.ly/3cAIH4j Newest Vid's https://bit.ly/3JkFmEqFollow Us On Facebook https://bit.ly/3oh5cS8Gerald Cotten or Gerry Cotten's life and tragic passing are shrouded in mystery. California (2) Massachusetts (1) Texas (2) Refine Your Search Results. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! Was the CEOknown for his luxurious lifestyle, which included jets, supercars and vacationsmurdered by a mob debt collector or a jealous lover? Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions. [50], Quadriga's lawyer, the firm Stewart McKelvey, withdrew from the case due to a potential conflict of interest. Now Cottens jet-set lifestyle looked suspicious. 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. Was Patryn, whom employees described as a macho, terrifying character, calling the shots, not Cotten?
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