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. 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. She had accompanied him to a hospital in Jaipur the previous day and he was diagnosed with septic shock, perforation, peritonitis, and intestinal obstruction. G erald Cotten was 15 when he ran his first documented get-rich-quick scheme. Here's a link to the BlackHat forum. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix The thing is, a CEOs death shouldnt lock customers out of their money. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. ", He added: "We thought we were looking for basically a rich guy who had stolen money, Now either [Cotten is] dead, or if hes alive, hes a gambling addict whos broke.". The circumstances sparked speculation from some in the crypto community that the CEO faked his death and stole his clients' money. Supposedly, Cottens business associates didnt even know he was married. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. The OSC. Subsequent investigations found that Michael Patryn, one of the co-founders, registered the domain name for QuadrigaCXnot Gerry. 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. A Canadian bank froze another $21 million of funds. The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. The media dragged Gerald Cotten's wife, Jennifer Robertson, into the spotlight after his mysterious death. 5 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. A C$100,000 trust fund was made to provide lifelong care for Cotten's two chihuahuas in case of Robertson's death. 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? Gerald Cotten Still Alive ? For instance, had Cottens death certificate, which spelled his name as Cottan, been faked? Robertsons sister, for the record, doesnt think that Cotten had fabricated his relationship with Jennifer. "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. Gerald Cotten's body should be exhumed, investors in QuadrigaCX tell 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. 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. Zou trusted Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with C$500,000 (305,000). So what exactly happened to Cotten, and is he still alive somewhere sitting on a mountain of stolen crypto? Netflix announced an upcoming documentary about the Quadriga Bitcoin saga and the death of CEO Gerald Cotten. But even the forensic accountants only managed to trace $46 million of the total $215 million customers had deposited onto the exchange. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. Where is Gerald Cotten's Wife Jen Robertson Now? - The Cinemaholic Quadriga had four employees in 2015 with offices in Vancouver and Toronto, but ran out of money by June 2015. In that case, $851 million entrusted to Crypto Capital had been "lost, stolen or absconded with", according to the suit. 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. Now Cottens jet-set lifestyle looked suspicious. A big chunk of it was given to him by his parents. It was one of the only games in town [for crypto enthusiasts], Sheona McDonald, who directed the film, told The New York Post. After some more digging, the reporter found an order form filled out by one Gerald Cotten. I put myself into a deep hole and the only way to dig out of it was to sell my house.. Cotten told a Globe and Mail reporter that the banks, which didnt trust crypto exchanges, had frozen the exchanges bank accounts. seeks to unravel the mystery of Gerald Cotten, the CEO of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, who died in 2018. [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. And why did the Indian hospital that treated Cotten misspell his name on his death certificate? Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten | FAKE Behind 'Hunt For The Crypto King' Netflix | Where Are They Now?Subscribe Here! "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King". [17][20], In 2017, Bitcoin experienced a speculative frenzy rising in price from about US$1,000 to almost US$20,000. 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. Gerald Cotten: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com And not even he thinks that Gerald is deadnor did he ever meet his wife. Was a recently-active Skype account proof he was still alive? And not even. 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. Thats when the Globe started to be convinced that he was dead, after all. Gerald Cotten. Now . He appointed Peter Wedlake of Grant Thornton to be chief restructuring officer. 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. It sucks.". So the Globe goes to Cottens hospital in India to put the whole fake death thing to bed. gerald cotten belize - Fullpackcanva.com So his spiral down into a life of crime was either pure greed or him seeking the thrill. 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. 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. His clients were locked out of about $250 million, and investigators later. He launched QuadrigaCX in 2013, and it quickly became one of the largest crypto exchanges. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. Gerald Cotten is allegedly meant to have died from Crohn's disease after the exchange crashed. But when co-founder Cotten died during a honeymoon in India, the money was seemingly lost forever. [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. 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. 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. There's a small chance that someone was investigating his old accounts and that they accessed his BlackHat but it's very unlikely. Where is Gerald Cotten now from Netflix's Hunt for the Crypto - HITC By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider No longer a likable nerd, investors thought that Gerald, now sceptre, had been operating scams since he was 15. There's only two people who really know what happened in India. It comes as we revealed some of the world's biggest crypto scams following the case of Bitcoin tradersRaees Cajee, 21 and Ameer, 18,who fledSouth Africa after allegedly pocketing 2.5billion. 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. Was Patryn, whom employees described as a macho, terrifying character, calling the shots, not Cotten? Stay up to date with what you want to know. Dhanani also had pleaded guilty to burglary and grand theft charges and had been deported to Canada. I'm new to this subreddit, I apologise if anything I have said breaks the rules. While Robertson has possession of the laptop containing the necessary passwords, she remains locked out. He passed away in 2018 with the secret of $250 million. So far, only about $46 million has been recovered. His wife has said she was "upset and disappointed" to learn about the extent of the fraud at her husbands company, writing in a 2019 statement, she wasnt aware or involved in Gerrys trading activities, nor his appropriation of customer funds." Soon enough, QuadrigaCXs customers struggled to withdraw money from the exchange. 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. When Taylor Monahan, founder of MyCrypto, examined the exchanges cold wallets, she couldnt find the lost crypto. (His wife says he is in fact dead and witnessed his funeral). Then, out of the blue, one Mike Patryn joined the Telegram group that investors were using to discuss conspiracies. 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. 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. Fourteen trading accounts that were also examined were used to trade on other exchanges. Where was the rest of the money? Jilted investors of Cotton's crypto firm QuadrigaCX have demanded his corpse be exhumed and tests run to confirm its his body. At this point, lots of investors think that Cotten, a man alleged to have a history of scamming, really had faked his own 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. Jennifer, scared for her safety, entered a safe house. 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.. But the money, of course, was still missing. Mystery of crypto CEO who died, taking $250 million with him His death left investors locked out of their money and left Jennifer Robertson, Gerry's wife . Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere, she said in court filings. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. [33] Aaron Matthews served as Director of Operations. - Watch Full Details ! What really happened to Gerald Cotten, Netflix's Crypto King? 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". The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. He was one of the wealthiest people in the crypto world, and his company was at its pinnacle. He hopes the Netflix doc will get authorities to "move their asses and do something about it" but also to raise awareness "so it doesn't happen to other people". Where was the rest of the money? It was a perfect match, sparked up on Tinder, she said in the documentary. ET. QuadrigaCX's Crypto Accounts Were Emptied Months Before CEO's 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. One of the Globe reporters had a hunch that this was Gerry Cotten, and traced the account to another online den of thieves, BlackHatWorld. 4 people named Gerald Betzen found in California, Texas and Massachusetts. Angry and suspicious investors congregated on Reddit and Telegram to try to get to the bottom of the mystery. His wife Jennifer Robertson said he had promised to create a mechanism that turned thepasswords over to her when he died. I'm 99% sure he is still alive living nicely. The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, allegedly died in 2018 after traveling to India. 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. April 2, 2022 Netflix Nobody was expecting Gerald Cotten, the CEO of Canadian Bitcoin exchange QuadrigaCX, to die at 30. 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. "I could have invested it in real estate. Customers have since struggled to regain access to their money, citing withdrawl issues and lack of communication from the company. A lost password, a sudden death and $180M in missing crypto She has also said she has no idea what the passwords are to access sequestered customer funds, and that it wasnt written down anywhere. A sneak preview of the Netflix doc contains images that suggest the documentary will show the investors dive deeper into these conspiracies. Mystery of rogue Bitcoin trader who 'died' taking with - The Sun My sisters not a liar.. The dude literally said that comment as a complete joke, and I even . Many believe that Cotten faked his death, however, as part of an exit scam to get away with stealing millions from Quadrigas customers. And who dies from Crohns disease at 24 years old? 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. The user said that he left the company in 2016, and that the company was legitimate at the time. 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. So the. "It just makes me more depressed about it," Zou told Sky News. Things began to sour, however, in 2018, when the price of Bitcoin collapsed. And, wildly, was Jennifer, his wife, even real? Thats when the. Here's my take on Gerald Cotten and his suspicious death. But Cotten was a bad trader: losing money hand over fist, he gambled away about $150 million of customer funds. Despite no concrete evidenceindeed, the murdered mans. The streaming service announced the feature alongside a slate of upcoming true-crime projects last week. They surfed his social media accounts at first, then traced Cottens digital footprints even more closely for clues. [17], In 2016, Cotten became the sole director of Quadriga when all the other directors resigned. [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. Its the swindler story you havent heard of until now. Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, was thought to have had sole access to the funds and coins exchanged on it. 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. Then, the crypto millionaire suddenly died in India from complications from Crohn's disease about three years ago. Still, all this evidence was circumstantialinvestors hadnt yet found a smoking gun. Premieres in 2022 pic.twitter.com/rP9iFJHkWm. Gerald Cotten was the founder of one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Quadriga CX. He was 30-years-old at the time of his death. The death, and the resulting collapse of Quadriga, set off a score of government and citizen investigations into how so much digital currency could be spirited away. firms", "What happens when your bitcoin banker dies? [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. "It did become an obsession.. You transferred them $1,000 and you could see the crypto in your account. did gerry and his wife fake his passing and steal the money? Indian authorities maintain that Cotten, whose body was repatriated to Nova Scotia for a small closed-casket funeral, died on Dec. 9, 2018, shortly after checking into a luxury hotel in Jaipur. 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. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? : r/QuadrigaCX - reddit Then, as their accounts accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars, Gerald passed unexpectedly, taking the passwords to the accounts to his grave.