The Secret Life and Strange Death of Quadriga Founder Gerald Cotten Things began to sour, however, in 2018, when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. (His wife says he is in fact dead and witnessed his funeral). firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? Investors who lost $190m demand exhumation of cryptocurrency mogul 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 Betzen (4 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address - Spokeo https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/hiring-a-programmer-website-like-bitstamp-bitcoin-trading-project.605236/. California (2) Massachusetts (1) Texas (2) Refine Your Search Results. 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. 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. I took out three loans from the bank and put it all into crypto. A bitcoin mining operation in Saint Hyacinthe, Quebec. Image Source: Social Media. This was my entire savings, built through ten years of work, said one disgruntled customer in the doc. [17][29] Bloomberg also identified Patryn as Dhanani, showing that he had officially changed his name from Omar Dhanani to Omar Patryn in British Columbia in March 2003 and changed it again to Michael Patryn in October 2008. 'The Crypto King': Who is Gerald Cotten and Where is Gerry Now? - Newsweek , initially diagnosed Cotten with little more than travelers diahrrea, but kept him in hospital just in case. Cotten also took flying lessons as he appeared to be possibly preparing for a life on the run. November 28, 2022 by Nurudeen. "[40][41], Ernst & Young found five Quadriga cold wallet addresses, but they were empty, containing no cryptocurrency since April 2018. Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. 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. The Netflix documentary will follow investors-turned-investigators looking into theories on the founder's sudden death. 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. Gerald Cotten was the founder of one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Quadriga CX. 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. gerald cotten belize - Fullpackcanva.com 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. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? : r/QuadrigaCX - reddit Mr Cotten, 30 at the time of his death, seemed to be living the dream life of a financial titan. Gerald Cotten. Quadriga Fintech Solutions - Wikipedia [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. TRUST NO ONE: THE HUNT FOR THE CRYPTO KINGFollow a group of investors turned sleuths as they try to unlock the suspicious death of cryptocurrency multimillionaire Gerry Cotten and the missing $250 million they believe he stole from them. 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. Gerald and Jennifer kept most of their relationship away from the public. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings. We pay for your stories! Bitcoin fraudster's widow breaks silence about the missing crypto 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'm 99% sure he is still alive living nicely. Jilted investors in a defunct cryptocurrency company want to confirm the death of the business's founder by exhuming his remains. Reported by Fansided, Globe and Mail journalist Nathan Vanderklippe spoke to Dr. Sharma, who dealt with Cotten when he came into the hospital. It apparently had no formal accounting system. I put myself into a deep hole and the only way to dig out of it was to sell my house.. Here's my take on Gerald Cotten and his suspicious death. [1], The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. 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. Exit Scam host Aaron Lammer told CoinDesk: "My read was that, on some level, Gerry was addicted to scamming, "Addicted to stealing peoples money. The podcast was hosted by Takara Small. 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. 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. [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. His death certificate was issued by the Indian authorities and contains an incorrect spelling of his name. Investors want QuadrigaCX founder Gerald Cotten's remains exhumed 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. In court filings, it was revealed that Mr Cottens email was listed as Midas Golds contact. Cotten's sudden death in 2018 led to the disappearance of millions of dollars. It was one of the only games in town [for crypto enthusiasts], Sheona McDonald, who directed the film, told The New York Post. Obituary -Gerald Cotten Wife, Death Cause, Alive or Death? Wikipedia Dying from Crohn's disease when only 1.6% of sufferers from this disease die of it and to happen to die from . Then Gerald Cotten suddenly died, in December of 2018, from complications with Crohn's disease. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. Then, as their accounts accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, Gerald passed unexpectedly, taking the passwords to the accounts to his grave. ET. lets break it all down. Netflix's 'Trust No One': Who Was QuadrigaCX CEO Gerald Cotten? By Robin Hill-Gray. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). 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. His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . About C$1.2 billion worth of bitcoin was exchanged on Quadriga. Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company. 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. Wood ordered a "30-day stay that precludes filing of claims against Quadriga", which is a temporary legal protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, a legal status that allows insolvent corporations to restructure their business and financial affairs. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. [19] Other than a few contractors, it had no employees, offices or bank accounts thereafter. It essentially removes the need for a central authority. reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The business was run from Cotten's encrypted laptop from Cotten's home in Fall River, Nova Scotia. He was able to keep the venture, called S&S Investments, going for three months, before it folded and investors money was gone. 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. [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. 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. The only catch: only Gerry knew the passwords to the companys crypto-vaults. Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. 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. [7] Meanwhile, in order to manage the finances of the company during the process, a third-party monitor, Ernst & Young, was appointed. But months later, customers still couldnt take their money out. [24][25][26], According to court filings, Quadriga also used WB21 as a payment processor. The two first met in November 2014 and had been together for some time before tying the knot in October 2018. 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. 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. [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. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. We explain how to spot them. "You appear dead for a few days, until you get the cure," the source said. Evidence of him faking death: There's lots of bizaare things that are suspicious. And meanwhile, Dead Man's Switch director Sheona McDonald said: "There's only two people who really know what happened in India.". "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. The thing about conspiracy theories, though, is that they mutate out of control very quickly, and arent always reflective of the latest evidence. 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 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.. #GeraldCottenReallyDead #GeraldCottenStillAliveGerald Cotten Really Dead ? Some evidence suggested that Jennifer, if real, was acting strangely. 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. 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. Companies have backups, safeguards to protect against this kind of thing. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). Jilted investors of Cotton's crypto firm QuadrigaCX have demanded his corpse be exhumed and tests run to confirm its his body. 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.