"I've already said it a million times now: I don't know.I'm tired of defending myself for something I didn't do.". There were other financial problems for Cotten, too: CIBC had frozen $26 millionof the company's funds because of "suspicious activity" and another $10 millionwas locked away by a software bug. Quadriga Fund claimed to be operated by four (unnamed) investment managers. In his commentsboth in the group chat and in a private chathe has minimized his involvement in Quadriga and declines to speak in detail about his past. The company took a cut from every Bitcoin trade on its platform. There is yet another possibility, one that none of the cases investigators is willing to discount. Crypto Long & Short News and analysis for the professional investor. Jennifer Kathleen Margaret Robertson (born 1988 as Jennifer Griffith [2] [1]) is a Canadian real estate developer best known as the heir and widow of the CEO of the controversial QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency exchange. After his wife, Jennifer Robertson, announced his death on Facebook in January 2019, conspiracy theories quickly began circulating amongst Quadriga users who believed Cotten wasn't dead at. Gerald Cotten didn't just cause investors to lose millions he deceived his wife, Jennifer Robertson for years. He attended meetups at coffee shops and dorm rooms, organized by a core group of about 10 people, who called themselves the Vancouver Bitcoin Co-op. Cotten, 26 at the time, said he worked in bitcoin. I dont get to hold myself blameless. Once, Cotten mentioned that his business partner was visiting Toronto and asked her to coffee. Nine days later Cotten is believed to have died due to complications of Crohn's disease, with Robertson announcing the death publicly a month later. While I warned people privately, I wasnt shouting it from the rooftops. The chat group Quadriga Uncovered has nearly 500 members, many of them creditors who use the forum to discuss details of the claims process and share revelations and theories about the case. Be a smarter, safer investor in eight weeks. (For his part, Patryn says he hasnt seen any reason to think that [Cotten] is alive.). She has co-authored a book titled Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions that details her experiences with Gerry. A couple of years after graduation, Cotten moved to Vancouver and joined a clubby community of entrepreneurs who had become enamored with Bitcoin. Gerald Cotten was a like a dream to . The Nova Scotia Supreme Court declared the company bankrupt and selected the accounting firm Ernst & Young to serve as its third-party monitor, responsible for securing the lost funds belonging to Quadrigas creditors. They settled on a customized Jeanneau 51 with a pink and cream interior: three cabins, a dining area for six, a dishwasher, a gas stove, a washer and dryer, an en suite bathroom with standing shower, and a swim platform with teak battens. But on December 9, 2018, Gerry died at a local hospital because of complications resulting from Crohns disease at the age of 30. In January 2014 Salkeld posted a video on YouTube in which Cotten gently teaches his young daughters how to operate the Bitcoin ATM; Salkeld is certain that his two-year-old is the youngest person ever to have purchased Bitcoin. It'd be a form of closure for some people," said Small. During that time Quadriga continued to accept new funds but returned none. About 76,000 individuals held accounts on Quadriga, and some of the most technically sophisticated of them were out hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Lets work together. 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. Using Cotten's money, Robertsonstarted her own real estate company andmanagedmore than a dozen properties. "I hadn't understood how Quadriga had held money in the first place;I thought it was just a trade," she said. And the fact that he did what he did I carry his shame with me. Jennifer Robertson, whose husband Gerald Cotten died aged 30 during their honeymoon in India in 2018, opened up about her ordeal in a new book, Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions. But within a month after Cottens reported death, blockchain investigators proved that nearly all of the inaccessible wallets were empty. 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. Law enforcement has the edge in nearly every other category: crime labs, informants, surveillance technology, forensic databases, the threat of arrest. Sure, he said. One day he showed up with Cotten, who behaved like a runt little brother but, as one friend put it, in a gross kind of waysycophantic, almost submissive. Quadriga sponsored local Bitcoin conventions and educational events, investments of $500 or $1,000 that yielded incalculable goodwill. Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018 and took keys to $250 million in cryptocurrency assets to his grave. ', "And he was like, 'No, I'm the only one with banking connections, I'm the only one that knows how to work it.' Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions | CBC News Loaded. Overnight, Quadriga became Canadas dominant Bitcoin marketplace. TalkGold was a Ponzi clearinghouse, where blind faith and curdled cynicism engaged in a demonic rumba. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Just days before they left, Cotten made out a will, leaving everything to Robertson, except for $100,000 he left to take care of his two dogs. 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. The court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young, employed cryptocurrency experts but was roundly ridiculed for a string of blunders that began when, shortly after seizing control of Quadrigas remaining funds, approximately $1 million was inadvertently transferred to one of the accounts that Cottens death rendered inaccessible. It was then revealed that Gerry presumably happened to be the only person with access to the digital keys to the cold wallets that held the cryptocurrency. Under the most charitable interpretation of Cottens actions, the public bid marks the moment that he decided to go straight. So, if youre curious to find out more, weve got you covered. The circumstances around Cotten's sudden death left investorswith questions. But users claimed they received deposits from Jennifer directly, seemingly contradicting her statement. Jack Julian joined CBC Nova Scotia as an arts reporter in 1997. The smiling boy stood out. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Cotten's company, QuadrigaCX, expanded exponentially, and the twentysomethings soon became wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. 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. She can be reached at cassandra.williams@cbc.ca, on Twitter @cassiehwilliams, With files from Andrew Chang and CBC's The National, Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Seasick marine biologist, turned journalist. When it came to the case of the missing Quadriga millions, however, the balance was reversed. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. (Many who were born without white privilege, including nearly every Chinese person Ive met in Vancouver, has anglicized their name, says Patryn. It is theoretically possible to conduct high-volume trades in such a way as to launder funds, provided that the trades are exotic enough to ensure that the losses accrue to another account that Cotten, or an associate, controls. It was so hard to buy Bitcoin in Canada, says Cotten in his unflappably peppy, inquisitive voice, in a 2014 interview. Preppers, techies, hippies, and yuppies are converging on the American West, the safest place to exit a society gone haywire. "I saw Gerry die, I was holding his hand when he passed away. 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. But the safe was gone. Cottens reputation as a cryptocurrency true believer survived his death on December 9, 2018. Gerald "Gerry" Cotten died in 2018, taking with him a password to access funds Photo credit: Netflix. The cautionary tales of fortunes lost because of misplaced private keys have the quality, in Bitcoin mythology, of the homilies delivered at religious gatherings. In 2010 he graduated with a bachelors degree in business administration from an honors program at York Universitys Schulich School of Business in Toronto. So, if youre curious to find out more, weve got you covered. ^ "Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions". His wife, Jennifer Robertson, said he promised to create a mechanism that would give her the passwords after his death. The sudden death of Gerald Cotten in December 2018 plunged the world of cryptocurrency into chaos. As a result, Jennifer had to deal with the legal ramifications. "Details emerging about Gerald Cotten, the young founder of QuadrigaCX". Most of the homes are in metro Halifax. Most people, a year after his death, already have. One of those bay islandsfour acres of pine encircled by black sandCotten purchased that summer. Robertson had already been briefly married. His name was Gerald Cotten, and he went by Gerry; his girlfriend was a property manager named Jennifer Robertson, or Jen; her two Chihuahuas, who liked to sun themselves on the deck as the. 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. Bitcoin would enable more than two billion people who lacked access to banks to send and receive payment; it would offer stability to citizens of countries with chaotic currencies; it would eliminate all banking fees. And I did think that was odd.". Cotten ran his own succession of schemes throughout those years, during which he also attended an undergraduate honors program at York Universitys Schulich School of Business. After he squandered what remained in Quadrigas coffers, the price of Bitcoin plunged, and there was a run on the exchange. Gerald Cotten's widow, Jennifer Robertson, said he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 24, about a year after he co-founded QuadrigaCX with his partner Mike Patryn. He would count on most people to forget all about him. It was a gentle, unflappable smile. He credited fake Quadriga accounts with fake funds but made actual trades by betting on cryptocurrency value. Perhapsthis scenario goesCotten believed that the cryptocurrency bull market would continue indefinitely, leading to higher trading volumes and profits; Cotten would have forced Patryn out, knowing that with intensified public scrutiny, his past would become a liability. He was busy. He would have new names and passports, perhaps a new face. According to the authorities, about $169 million of the funds were missing, with five of the six cold wallets used to store the cryptocurrency being empty since April 2018. The Protocol Exploring the tech behind crypto. In 2014 Cotten spoke publicly of moving currencies between exchanges to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities. They wanted answers. The couple lived in a three-bedroom in Fall River, north of Halifax, a rich suburb only recently carved out of a forest near a long dark lake; Cotten owned a third home in Kelowna, in British Columbias wine country; a fourth in Calgary; and 14 rental properties in Nova Scotia, including, in Bedford, every house on a dead-end street. Jennifer now lives in Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, with her two pet dogs. Every Bitcoin transaction appears in a public ledgerthe blockchainthat can be consulted by anybody with internet access. I love electric. The whole thing would cost $600,000, but expense never came uponly safety. Most conspicuous was the odd way that the young man always seemed to be smiling. . It may be that he traded Quadrigas funds in a frantic effort to recoup the losses he had sustained. He was driven to a private hospital and diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. After his death, investigators discovered he used the money as his own personal slush fund. "I did let that go to the lawyers and the contractors, and I trusted that they knew what to do," she said. By that point, however, a new Gerald Cotten venture was already six months old. According to an investigation by Canada's Globe and Mail, Cotten. He ranted about his hatred of scam artists, though his definition of the term seemed rather idiosyncraticidentity theft was a clean, bloodless business, but when you lied to someones face, it was unforgivable. 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. The exchange took a cut of every transaction. Still Cotten was not directly responsible for all of his troubles. In the months that followed,investigatorsuncovered that Cotten had been moving money from the exchange into his personal accountsand engaging in other suspicious behaviour. (TalkGold was run by twins Edward and Brian Krassenstein until 2016, when agents from the Office of Homeland Security seized their files and froze their assets but never charged them with a crime. Jennifer Robertson and Gerald Cotten married in 2018. Everything was going well until the press released the news of his death. Perklin said he has no evidence Cotten is still alive, however. "Whenever people put their money into the exchange, he sort of used it as his personal slush fund," she said. Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyones Bracing for Apocalypse. The guy just always had a big goofy smile and laugh. This meant that multiple customers were missing over $180 million. As a result, Jennifer had to deal with the legal ramifications. He cleared trees and built a house, though he had no apparent plans to move in. Thousands of customers paid his company to mine cryptocurrency for them. 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 began his own HYIP chat site by December, and on January 1, 2004he was 15 and a halfhe launched his first pyramid scheme, S&S Investments. The public bid was a last-ditch effort to salvage a flailing Ponzi, exploiting positive press and public sympathy to bilk money from investors. He saw himself as an enforcerof rules, of integrity, of loyalty. It looked hollow.. Cotten opened his account three months later, shortly after his 15th birthday. It was the largest online money-laundering case in American history: Liberty Reserves 5.5 million user accounts had conducted 78 million transactions worth more than $8 billion. Wealth is freedom, read the prospectus. On Dec.1, 2016, Nova Scotia's Royal Gazette announced she was changing her name from Jennifer Kathleen Margaret Griffith to her current name, Jennifer Kathleen Margaret Robertson. Essentially, Gerry gambled away customer money through trading. Apart from that, Jennifer is studying to become an elementary school teacher and hopes to graduate soon. Deeds for properties she bought in 2016 show she was once known as Jennifer Forgeron. His parents owned an antiques store; Cotten decided to go into crypto. The amateurs most valuable advantage is time. In a small, inefficient market, Quadriga swiftly distinguished itself. As the cryptocurrency soared in value, Robertson and Cotten lived a life of luxury that included exotic vacations, luxury vehicles, a yacht and a Cessna aircraft. It was devoted to high-yield investment programs, or HYIPs, more commonly known as Ponzi schemes. If the Mastermind Theory seems far-fetched, its worth pointing out that an exit scam can only succeed if it seems far-fetched. 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.