Among the latest releases that we found on Netflix in the section of documentaries on true crimes, we have been struck by “ You can’t trust anyone: On the hunt for the king of cryptocurrency “ , an hour and a half production on the history of QuadrigaCX and the case of the 170 million euros in missing cryptocurrencies.
Despite the short history since Bitcoin was created in 2008 and then thousands of other cryptocurrencies arrived, the history of cryptocurrencies hides great mysteries, with the QuadrigaCX exchange being probably the biggest to date (and still unsolved).
Origins of QuadrigaCX
Gerald “ Gerry ” Cotten created Quadriga Fintech Solutions in November 2013 in Vancouver with a partner named Michael Patryn. He had bet on cryptocurrencies aware of its potential and even installed ATMs with cryptocurrency support in Canada. They would later transition to a cryptocurrency exchange called QuadrigaCX, which they advertised as “ Canada’s largest Bitcoin exchange ” .
Gerald “Gerry” Cotten
Like many others in the industry, Gerry Cotten framed his company not only as a financial tool, but as a radical social change, which made him quickly connect with his potential clients:
“Basically, it removes the need for a central authority. So, you get rid of the fees. And you get rid of a lot of the regulations,” he said on a podcast in 2014. “It’s more or less money from the people to the people.”
A priori, everything was going well and it is believed that during the first years it operated legitimately, achieving great returns during the year 2017 in which the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed. However, in 2018, when the price of Bitcoin crashed, the problems began.
Many investors tried to withdraw their money from QuadrigaCX to avoid further loss, but were met with long processing times and error messages. It soon became apparent that something was wrong with the platform. In early 2019, the website completely stopped working and went bankrupt .
QuadrigaCX
Gerry Cotten is believed to have orchestrated a massive investment scam. Quadriga functioned as a kind of Bitcoin Ponzi scam and investors couldn’t touch the cash they invested, leaving people wondering if Gerry faked his death and disappeared with millions of dollars.
The disappearance and death of Gerry Cotten
The news that Gerry Cotten died in India on December 9, 2018 did not put an end to the matter, but rather caused the opposite effect due to the strange circumstances surrounding his death. Angry investors suspected that his death was not what it seemed at first glance and began to gather on forums and online platforms to try to shed light on what happened to his lost money.
Cotten died of complications from Crohn’s disease 12 days after amending her will. He was on a honeymoon trip after marrying Jennifer Robertson. According to Dr. Sharma, who treated Cotten at Fortis Escorts Hospital in Jaipur, she was admitted with severe pain in her stomach just 9 days into her honeymoon, with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Death certificate (via Coindesk)
Although at first it was thought that he was simply suffering from traveler’s diarrhea, he was admitted and suffered three cardiac arrests the next day. Doctors were able to revive him the first two times, but not the third. Most cases of Crohn’s disease are non-fatal, which partly explains why people thought Gerry was faking his death.
The death certificate issued by the Indian government did not help calm the troubled waters either, as it was issued with a typo, since the name on it was “ Gerald William Cottan ” , not Cotten.
The delay of more than a month to communicate his death increased speculation by exchange users who lost all their savings, even demanding that Cotten’s body be exhumed to certify his death. The latest version of his will listed a number of assets in which Cotten had invested money that investors believed had been used for cryptocurrency, including several properties in Nova Scotia and Kelowna, British Columbia, a 2017 Lexus, a plane, a Jeanneau 51 yacht, as well as the couple’s two Chihuahuas , Nitro and Gully.
Please see our statement regarding the sudden passing of our @QuadrigaCoinEx founder and CEO, Gerry Cotten. A visionary leader who transformed the lives of those around him, he will be greatly
missed. https://t.co/5rvGZ2BfLV— QuadrigaCX (@QuadrigaCoinEx) January 14, 2019
Quadriga reportedly kept his funds in six “cold wallets ,” digital storage devices that are not connected to the Internet and are protected from illegal access. The main drawback is that the only one who knew the company’s passwords was Gerry and with his death they were lost. In addition, in five of them there were no funds since April 2018, months before Cotten’s alleged death.
QuadrigaCX was unable to recover around $150 million worth of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Cash SV, Bitcoin Gold, Litecoin, and Ethereum, nor is it able to pay the around $53 million it owed to its clients, filing for bankruptcy .
“ Over the last few weeks, we have worked extensively to address our liquidity issues, which include attempting to locate and secure our very significant cryptocurrency reserves stored in cold wallets, and which are necessary to cover customer cryptocurrency balances on deposit. », the firm said. “Unfortunately, these efforts have been unsuccessful. “
Cotten married Jennifer Robertson, whom he had met 4 years earlier, just 6 months before her death, and that meant his entire empire went directly to her as the sole heir to all his assets and as executor of his estate, since The couple did not have any children. He ended up telling his version of events by writing a book called “ Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal, and the Missing Millions ”. Robertson said Gerry told her he would give her a mechanism that would reveal the passwords to her in the event of his death, but she never received it.
