Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, said her husband moved most of the digital assets to cold storage, and experts she brought in to try to hack into his other computers and mobile phone met . In this way Cotten could have stowed away a fortune in foreign bank accounts in preparation for a grand exit. Gerald Cotten, 30, was the CEO of QuadricaCX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada which defaulted last year following his death while abroad with his wife Jennifer Robertson.. I love electric. The whole thing would cost $600,000, but expense never came uponly safety. On his personal YouTube channel (account name Gerryrulz) he had posted several dozen homemade videos as infantile as they were portentous: Gerry incinerating a $20 bill in his microwave; Gerry knocking over a Jenga tower with a giant teddy bear; Gerry stuck in an amusement park maze, repeating the same mistakes, unable to escape. He grew up in a large brick house on a quiet suburban street in Belleville, The Friendly City, a waterfront community between Toronto and Montreal best known for its cheddar cheese. While I warned people privately, I wasnt shouting it from the rooftops. What if the furious trading on other exchanges near the end of his life was not careless but calculated? Id like a boat that I can cruise locally, said the smiling boy, and then take south. He wanted to reach the Caribbean without having to stop in Canada or the United States. Cotten amassed millions from setting up what was once Canada's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, QuadrigaCX, and lived a lavish lifestyle After his mysterious death during his honeymoon with wife. Gerald Cotten may have had a sophisticated grasp of cryptocurrency, but his expertisehis formal traininglay in the art of the confidence game. When it came to the case of the missing Quadriga millions, however, the balance was reversed. Who was the crypto king Gerry Cotten and what happened to him? She appeared with him, and even introduced him, at conferences. Whats your goal? replied the yacht salesman, in the delicate manner of his trade. Robertson said while she isn'tfirmly against the idea of an exhumation, shewas withCotten when he died. But in February 2018, his. The public bid was a last-ditch effort to salvage a flailing Ponzi, exploiting positive press and public sympathy to bilk money from investors. What Happened to Jennifer Robertson and Where Is Gerald Cotten's Wife Now? When S&S suspended operations three months later, taking most of its clients funds with it, Patryn took to TalkGold to defend Cottens integrity. Quadrigas corporate accounts did trade tens of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin with accounts connected to known Ponzi schemes and illegal marketplaces. Gerald Cottenwas just 30whenhedied in India in December 2018. In leaked text messages sent before his death, Cotten bragged about his extravagances (Im still cleaning the mess from our fondue party we had on the weekend lol); mentioned having a safe bolted to the rafters in the attic; joked about retiring soon; and referred to his honeymoon in scare quotes. Cotten may be hoping Robertson will join him once all the investigations have concluded, or she may be just another one of his victims. He used to crack jokes all the time. Where is Gerald Cotten's Wife Jen Robertson Now? - The Cinemaholic Still, the eulogies had a prismatic quality; viewed from an angle they suggested darker possibilities. "I would have never, ever stolen from other people. As a result, Jennifer had to deal with the legal ramifications. But there were questions regarding Gerrys death and the events surrounding it. Robertson isn't under investigation and has never faced criminal charges. Gerald Cotten was a like a dream to . Powered by WordPress.com VIP. All of it looked bad, but there was no confession of criminality. Gerald Cotten lied to thousands of investors in his crypto exchange, and deceived his wife Jennifer Robertson, a new book claims. In India, Cotten remarked, the Canadian dollar went a long way. Gerald 'Gerry' Cotten founded Quadriga CX, which he dubbed Canada 's best Bitcoin exchange. The RCMP and the FBI have refused to comment, but some of their interview subjects have gotten the impression that they believe Cotten might not be dead. The Instagram account belonging to Jennifer Robertson showed that since 2016 shed taken trips to Macchu Pichu, Dubai, Oman, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Rio de Janeiro, often in private jets. Jennifer Robertson was widowed whenCotten, the founder ofQuadrigaCX, died suddenly in India in December, leaving behind a business in chaos and as much as $180 million of cryptocurrency locked in his encrypted laptop and USB keys. Sunnybrook is the largest yacht brokerage on Canadas east coast. Josh Marcus reports on the life and lies of the 'Bitcoin Widow' Thursday 14. She told clients and friends to avoid Quadriga. Gerald Cotten - WikiAlpha Jennifer Robertson (Quadriga) - Wikipedia He found the place in the attic where four holes had been drilled through the rafters. On the. There were also the Lexus and the zippy single-engine airplane, a Cessna 400, which hed never tried to fly. Details emerging about Gerald Cotten, the young founder of QuadrigaCX He was always smiling, really friendly, offering stuff, says Alex Salkeld, a member of the original Vancouver Bitcoin circle. Cottens generosity helped to compensate for a social aloofness that, despite his implacable cheerfulness, prevented him from developing close relationships. Hi, he said. Four desks in a weird room, no business operations going on. In December 2018, Cotten died during his honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, in Jaipur, India. Robertson said she trusted Cotten, and anyquestions were explained away because banks were very "anti-bitcoin" and there were problems exchanging cryptocurrency for cash through traditional means. It looked hollow. Weinberg and several others who visited the office for Bitcoin meetups saw stacks of hundreds of payroll checks in the names of businesses that were not Quadriga, addressed to people who were not Quadriga employees. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police asked questions so rudimentary that they shocked the experts they interviewed. Jennifer met Gerry in November 2014 on Tinder. Gerry appeared to have taken full control, says Andrew Wagner. Netflix's 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. Settlement allows QuadrigaCX founder's widow to keep $90K in cash - CBC In the original account, Cotten fell sick nine days into his Indian honeymoon, shortly after checking into the Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur on December 8, 2018. She decided that his involvement might mean that Quadriga was legitimate after all. Ad Choices. If Quadriga was conceived as a scam, what kind of scam was it? Exit Scam: The Death and Afterlife of Gerald Cotten. More than 75,000 Quadriga account holders also had questions. EXIT SCAM @exitscampod Twitter profile | Pikagi The Quadriga Fund was an HYIP that claimed to invest in venture capital projects and foreign currency exchange markets; it could be funded with Liberty Reserve and Bitcoin, using payment processors operated by Patryn. Nova Scotia's property registry shows Robertson, her husbandand her company bought 16 properties between May 2016 and October 2018, ranging in price from $94,000for a waterfront lot in Lunenburg County to $2.5 million for nine row houses in Bedford. On May 24, 2013, federal agents in 17 countries arrested Liberty Reserves administrators, shuttering its website and seizing its records and bank accounts. They were to sponsor an orphanage in the country as well. Gerry and Alex [Hanin, a web developer] created and ran Quadriga, with Gerry running operations.) By 2015, however, the same information that the TalkGold community had gleaned a decade earlier was starting to surface on Reddit: that Michael Patryn was really Omar Dhanani, a convicted thief and defrauder with ties to organized crime. Back in 2018, 30-year-old Cotten took a trip to India with his now widow Jennifer Robertson for their honeymoon and to open an orphanage. There were forums promoting promising new HYIPs; scam warnings; advice on creating ones own Ponzi, or how to get out early enough to profit; and offers of payment to boost fraudulent schemes on the site. ', "And he was like, 'No, I'm the only one with banking connections, I'm the only one that knows how to work it.' By the time of his death, Cottens sham trading accountswhich had names like Aretwo Deetwo and Seethree Peaohhhad conducted approximately 300,000 trades. A quadriga is a chariot yoked to four horses abreast. The yacht salesman had questions, though it was not his job to ask questions. At the time, Gerry ran QuadrigaCX and profited from Bitcoins astronomical rise in value. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. In the fall of 2016, Bitcoin began its wild rise. In some exits, the operator simply vanishes with the funds. Twelve properties are currently held by Robertson Nova Property Management Ltd., a company registered toRobertson's home address. Cotten's com." The Walrus on Instagram: "Jennifer Robertson met her husband, Bitcoin entrepreneur Gerald Cotten, on Tinder. Patryn, though six years older than Cotten, was only 21. Patryn was described as ostentatiously secretivea trait not uncommon in cryptocurrency circlesand made vague allusions to a shadowy past and underworld connections. Hes what youd call, says Mueller, a real motherfucker.. The couple traveled abroad constantly, and they planned to sponsor a home for 12 children at an orphanage in India. It was the behavior of a doomed gambler employing the martingale strategy, successively doubling down in a desperate effort to get back to zero, until he had dug a hole so deep that he could only be buried inside it. But it was too much too fast: The young, inexperienced cryptocurrency purist was overwhelmed, beset by coding errors, scrutiny from banks, incompetent contractors, and crooked payment processors. Gerald "Gerry" Cotten died in 2018, taking with him a password to access funds Photo credit: Netflix. He befriended Cotten in 2016 in Toronto, where Cotten had moved during the effort to take Quadriga public. Some of the earliest findings by the Reddit sleuths were more prurient than incriminating. It was the cheapest exchange, the fastest, and, by all appearances, the safestthe first Bitcoin trading platform to hold a money-services business license from FinTRAC, Canadas anti-money-laundering authority. After hearing that Patryn had been bragging all over Vancouver about his talent for laundering money, Mueller unearthed the connection to Dhanani. Patryns departure was followed by the departure of the rest of the board, which included Patryns fiance, named Lovie Horner, and Anthony Milewski, a Patryn associate reportedly backed by Russian mining interests. Roberston said she's sorry for Cotten's actions and the harm he's caused. In a gambit of either flagrant carelessness or irrepressible egotism, Dhanani officially changed his name to the pseudonym he had used in his online criminal ventures, first to Omar Patryn and later to Michael Patryn. After he squandered what remained in Quadrigas coffers, the price of Bitcoin plunged, and there was a run on the exchange. After his release in 2007, he was deported to Canada. Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story. In isolation this might be written off as teenage hijinksor at most light fraud. You couldnt hook up your bank account to anywhere. It was just such a challenge.. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6. One Quadriga contractor claims today that the payment processor WB21, now the subject of federal lawsuits in the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, stole $14 million, and that another processor stole $5.8 million. Zou placed C$500,000 (305,000) in trust in Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Mueller didnt understand how a federal convict had been able to change his name, continue to operate, and escape charges. Quadrigas entire board resigned, leaving Cotten as Quadrigas only full-time employee. "It never occurred to me [that he was breaking the law]," said Robertson. Robertson said she understands many people have been hurt and lostlargesums due to the collapse of QuadrigaCX. Because Canadian banks refused to accept cryptocurrency businesses as clients, Quadriga had to rely on third-party processors, which levied outrageous fees and in some cases stole funds outright. A month passed before Robertson announced on Quadrigas Facebook page that Cotten had died. Its just completely out of their wheelhouse, says a Quadriga creditor and cryptocurrency expert who was interviewed after publishing his findings online under the moniker QCXINT. Its object was not to track down every lost Bitcoin but to maximize the pot of money that could be returned to Quadrigas creditors. Canadian Press. Crypto for Advisors What financial. Pitbull is a pal, Carbone is for dinner, and, The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. Asked for his location, Patryn said he was traveling between Thailand and Hong Kong. She wonders why Robertson didn't think to question what was going on. [3] Robertson's first marriage, to Jacob Forgernon, ended in divorcer. Cotten had mentioned having a safe bolted to the rafters in the attic of his home in which he had stored the passwords to his various cryptocurrency accounts. Confusion compounded confusion. (For his part, Patryn says he hasnt seen any reason to think that [Cotten] is alive.). Essentially, Gerry gambled away customer money through trading. Netflixs Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King delves into the circumstances surrounding Gerrys death and what happened to the company after that. That was our perception, at least., (Patryn has argued the reverse: that he quit Quadriga because he disagreed with Cottens decision to abandon the public listing. He was driven to a private hospital and diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. Be a smarter, safer investor in eight weeks. They always end our conversations with that question. QCXINT, the creditor and blockchain expert, said that the FBIs Vander Veer told him that with hundreds of millions of dollars missing and no body, its an open question. The only way to verify that the body Robertson brought home from India was Cotten is to exhume it. He was busy. Still Cotten was not directly responsible for all of his troubles. During that time Quadriga continued to accept new funds but returned none. The following afternoon Robertson returned with the body to Canada. It put strangers at ease; it made him seem lighthearted. Here's everything you need to know, had been moving money from the exchange into his personal accounts, she agreed to forfeit $12 million in assets, to wait weeks before letting investors know, CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. Cotten was a quick study. The couples marriage came around when Bitcoins value began to plummet, leading to customers wanting to withdraw their money from QuadrigaCX. 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. It'd be a form of closure for some people," said Small. That led to speculation that Cottenmayhave faked his own death. Other red flags raised by investors surrounding Cotten's death included his name being spelled incorrectly on the death certificate and his closed casket funeral. When Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, the passcodes for his cryptocurrency exchange died with him. They were excited. He seemed like the kind of guy who might retire early to an island somewhere. Patryn had said that Cotten was like a little brother to me. This was how those who had known both of them saw it too, though the characterization usually wasnt intended as a compliment. As Quadriga customers tried to pull their money from the exchange, they were met with long waits to access their funds. Soon they were responding to each others public posts with inside jokes. A death in Cryptoland | CBC News One of those bay islandsfour acres of pine encircled by black sandCotten purchased that summer. "Whenever people put their money into the exchange, he sort of used it as his personal slush fund," she said. She believed in him. Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea Among those Mueller warned was Amber Scott, an anti-money-laundering expert at a compliance firm in Toronto called Outlier Solutions. In February 2014, six weeks after Quadriga launched, Mt. This was the detail that most shocked cryptocurrency professionals. Details Emerging On Death Of Crypto CEO Gerald Cotten: Report - NDTV Patryn told reporters after Cottens death that they had met online over five years ago, but this was about as accurate as calling himself an adviser to Quadriga when in fact he had been the cofounder.