When crypto boss Gerald Cotten died in 2018 he took with him a fortune of up to $CA215 million ($A234 million) in bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The 30-year-old’s sudden death from complications of Crohn’s disease shocked the crypto world – but many believe he may have faked his demise in an elaborate “exit scam”.
Cotten took with him to the grave the keys that allowed access to the digital vault containing his investors’ cash that they had ploughed into trading platform Quadriga CX.
His death was kept secret for a month by the firm before it was finally announced – and it was found he had spent millions in investors’ money funding his own lavish lifestyle.
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Living a jetset life, he cruised the world on yachts, flew in private jets and investigators even released photos of piles of cash on his kitchen table.
Quadriga CX was left owing its 76,000 investors around $CA215million ($A234 million).
Criminal probes continue by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the FBI as leading digital investing publication Coindesk branded his death as “crypto’s biggest mystery”.
So what exactly happened to Cotten, and is he still alive somewhere sitting on a mountain of stolen crypto?
Some have speculated his death was a clever ruse and there have been calls to have his body exhumed to prove once and for all if his death was faked.
His will was signed just two weeks before he and wife Jennifer Robertson travelled to India on their honeymoon.
He appointed his wife as the executor of his estate, handing over a $CA9 million ($A9.7 million) real estate empire, his yacht and his Cessna plane – and he even left his two dogs an inheritance of $CA100,000 ($A108,000).
Robertson has not been accused of any wrongdoing – and has denied any knowledge of her husband’s business dealings.
Cotten also took flying lessons, adding to the theory he was preparing for a life on the run. And his death certificate which was issued by Indian authorities, contains an incorrect spelling of his name, further fuelling the conspiracies.
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History of murky financial dealings
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.
Police 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.
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.
Despite presenting himself as mild-mannered and clean cut, Cotten was found to have had a history of possibly carrying out financial cons – starting when he was a teenager.
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.
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.
The tech whiz however didn’t even need to do it – being an early believer in crypto, he likely would have got rich without the need to scam people.
He is believed to have made around $CA115 million ($A125 million) in crypto from his own accounts and put them into high risk financial bets – many of which crashed, costing him more money than Quadriga ever actually made.
Further complicating the matter, the company’s co-founder Michael Patryn was revealed to actually be a man named Omar Dhanani, who had previously been convicted in the US of identity fraud.
And with the mystery of Quadriga still being unravelled by the Feds, Mounties, amateur sleuths and investigative journalists, the question remains: What happened to Cotten?
Calls to dig him up
Furious investors continue to fight a legal battle to have Cotten’s body exhumed as they believe his death was a cut-and-run scam.
Cotten’s widow has rarely spoken publicly, but in an affidavit has described herself as being subject to “slanderous comments” over accusations her husband faked his death.
Robertson has denied any knowledge of her husband’s wrongdoing – and in 2019 returned $CA9 million ($A9.7 million) to the company to repay users.
The mystery of Cotten and Quadriga is now the subject of documentary Dead Man’s Switch and podcasts Exit Scam and A Death In Cryptoland.
Exit Scam host Aaron Lammer told CoinDesk: “My read was that, on some level, Gerry was addicted to scamming, addicted to stealing people’s money.
“This was more of a gambler’s high than a rich guy’s high … as he pursued more and more of other people’s money, the stakes went up,” he said.
“We thought we were looking for basically a rich guy who had stolen money, Now either [Cotten is] dead, or if he’s alive, he’s a gambling addict who’s broke.”
Lammer believes the evidence does suggest that Cotten died suddenly – having battled Crohn’s disease for a number of years, even though the timing was suspicious.
Meanwhile, Dead Man’s Switch director Sheona McDonald said: “There’s only two people who really know what happened in India.”
Bankruptcy trustees have managed to recover around $CA34 million ($A37 million) from Quadriga and $CA12 million ($A13 million) in assets from Cotten’s estate – but the rest remains locked away in the digital world of crypto.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is reproduced here with permission