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. Nobody followed up with him. There were limits, furthermore, to the scope of the monitors investigation. On Facebook he posed with a tiger, a lion, behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, straddling an ATV in a desert. After his death, investigators discovered he used the money as his own personal slush fund. Its clients tended to be surgeons and litigators and C-suiters who travel from Toronto and Paris and Hawaii to summer in Nova Scotia; their wives wear silks and Manolos and perfect fingernails that cost $300 yesterday at the salon. He neglected to disclose, however, that he filled those fake accounts with invented funds, trading counterfeit Bitcoin for real Bitcoin and Canadian and American dollars. The Walrus on Instagram: "Jennifer Robertson met her husband, Bitcoin A month passed before Robertson announced on Quadrigas Facebook page that Cotten had died. Friends say he spoke of an emotionally absent father, manipulative family members, his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Dhanani, who was known on another message board as an expert in washing funds, was arrested in Southern California, where he was living with his family. Inside the Dissident Fringe, Where the New Right Meets the Far Left, and Everyones Bracing for Apocalypse. Robertson had already been briefly married. The same blind faith that attracts the marks also drives them away. 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. The whisper campaign likely began after Ryan Mueller, who conducted oversight for a third-party processor in Vancouver, was asked to review Quadrigas application. Much of Quadrigas riseand Bitcoinshad been fueled by speculation from greenhorns who had heard something exciting about cryptocurrency from their nephew or cable news. Small said exhuming the body would be one way to lay those theories to rest. ^ "Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions". Cotten was a quick study. A yacht salesman never asked what customers were looking to spend, or whether they had ever been on a yacht, let alone knew how to operate one. Traditional law enforcement, meanwhile, had only the vaguest understanding of the subject. But users claimed they received deposits from Jennifer directly, seemingly contradicting her statement. Early on, Robertson was also processing funds acting as a funnel for customer money on behalf of QuadrigaCX. Investing with Quadriga was even patriotic: People like the fact were located in Canada, Cotten told an interviewer, a point he often emphasized. Gerry the Mastermind would count on the world believing he was reckless, greedy, and dead. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. There were also the Lexus and the zippy single-engine airplane, a Cessna 400, which hed never tried to fly. Where is Gerald Cotten's Wife Jen Robertson Now? - The Cinemaholic "Whenever people put their money into the exchange, he sort of used it as his personal slush fund," she said. And the fact that he did what he did I carry his shame with me. Gox, a Tokyo-based exchange, and had to be funded by sending a bank wire to Japan. Four desks in a weird room, no business operations going on. In the fall of 2016, Bitcoin began its wild rise. You couldnt hook up your bank account to anywhere. Gerald Cotten. Without them, our events would have stopped. Cotten had declined to solicit Perklins services for Quadriga, but they worked beside each other at Decentral Toronto, a blockchain company that leased office space and served as the hub of the Toronto Bitcoin scene. 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. Cotten was a computer nerd who had entered the right business at the right time and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. 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. (Many who were born without white privilege, including nearly every Chinese person Ive met in Vancouver, has anglicized their name, says Patryn. "I just really hated the questions, like, it seemed that I should have known," Robertson told CBC's Andrew Chang. Cottens generosity helped to compensate for a social aloofness that, despite his implacable cheerfulness, prevented him from developing close relationships. What if the furious trading on other exchanges near the end of his life was not careless but calculated? Who was the crypto king Gerry Cotten and what happened to him? Im Mike. They usually did the outreaching; nobody had reached out to them before. He also accepted cash deposits. 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. How did Jennifer Robertson and Gerry Cotten meet? Gabby Petitos Life WithAnd Death ByBrian Laundrie. So, if youre curious to find out more, weve got you covered. In its registration documents, Midas Gold listed as its contact gerald.cotten@gmail.com. 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 also mentioned that the business would die without him," she said. Where Is Gerald Cotten's Wife, Jennifer Robertson Now? - Ecelebritymirror They were to sponsor an orphanage in the country as well. Cotten provided withdrawals manually, seeming to give preference to the customers who complained loudest in public forums. It put us in a particular place of need.. Patryn made people uncomfortable. Through social media posts, court records, and other primary sources, author Kathleen Hale forensically reconstructs their lives before the crime, and the night they were killed. The most effective and thorough investigation to date, however, has been conducted by anonymous accounts posting on Twitter, Reddit, Pastebin, and Telegram. In 2014 Cotten spoke publicly of moving currencies between exchanges to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities. Jennifer Robertson (Quadriga) - Wikipedia Roberston said she's sorry for Cotten's actions and the harm he's caused. But just about every cryptocurrency expert in Canada had a Quadriga account. Quadriga raised nearly C$850,000 in private capital, but Cotten ultimately abandoned the effort after a dispute with one of the major investors. Cotten opened his account three months later, shortly after his 15th birthday. Since Cottens death, an ongoing conversation about the Quadriga affair has been conducted on Telegram, an encrypted messaging application that resembles WhatsApp, only with heightened privacy measures. Additional investigations were begun by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the FBI; and at least two other law enforcement agencies that have not been publicly disclosed (though one of them is likely a federal agency in Japan). Amidturmoil in the cryptocurrency market, Cotten and Robertson got married and decided to travel to Jaipur, India, for their honeymoon. According to her, Gerry was in charge of the accounts by then. Cotten died later that same year of complications from Crohn's disease, when the couple was on a honeymoon in India. Quadriga installed a Bitcoin ATM in its office, the second of its kind in Canada, and accepted gold by the ounce, which could be dropped off in person. Robertson was also not her birth name; she had gone from her given name, Griffith, to Forgeron and then back, following an earlier marriage and its dissolution, before finally landing on Robertson in 2016. Wealth is freedom, read the prospectus. Jennifer Robertson, the widow of QuadrigaCX founder Gerald (Gerry) Cotten, will be allowed to keep more than $90,000 cash and a Jeep Cherokee in a settlement agreement with the company's bankruptcy trustee. Cotten built his career on the insight that most people are willing to believe most of what they are told most of the time. The ethical distinctions between the models may have been vanishingly subtle, but the logic of the con would predict its fate, and Cottens. He is now a data journalist in Halifax, and you can reach him at (902) 456-9180, by email at jack.julian@cbc.ca or follow him on Twitter @jackjulian, Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Confusion compounded confusion. Over several dozen hours of sailing lessons, the yacht dealer learned a few things about his customer. Cottens efforts to win the trust of Bitcoin enthusiasts relied on his reputation in Vancouver, where he had become a director of the Bitcoin Co-op. If Trust No One was the first principle of Bitcoin, the second was Have a Plan B, and the third was Have a Plan C. If you lose the keys to your house, you can call a locksmith; if you forget the password to your savings account, your bank will provide a new one. When he did file, he claimed no income from Quadriga. Canadian real estate developer Jennifer Robertson met Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten on Tinder in 2014. The amateurs most valuable advantage is time. Zou placed C$500,000 (305,000) in trust in Quadriga CX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange. Or perhaps Quadriga was to resemble Cotten and Patryns previous collaboration, Midas Golda service that enabled money laundering, taking percentages of each transaction. Gerry appeared to have taken full control, says Andrew Wagner. Which Pubs and inns in Cornwall are suitable for children, which have a rich history, and where will visitors find the best deals and food. In one of his first posts he boasted of earning 30 percent monthly returns in HYIP investments. She appeared with him, and even introduced him, at conferences. Lets work together. Their companies websites often shared registration information and were operated by the same computers. And I did think that was odd.". Mueller didnt understand how a federal convict had been able to change his name, continue to operate, and escape charges. Cotten rarely brought up his work, but details emerged. The year after Robertson met Cotten, the value of cryptocurrency plummeted. "I did let that go to the lawyers and the contractors, and I trusted that they knew what to do," she said. He was described as an ex-business partner who had met Cotten online over five years ago. He was like a ray of sunshine, Patryn told the interviewer. But on December 9, 2018, Gerry died at a local hospital because of complications resulting from Crohns disease at the age of 30. And Ill carry that shame with me, probably, every single day for the rest of my life.. Hes what youd call, says Mueller, a real motherfucker.. Often Quadriga was the only Bitcoin company willing to pay for a sponsorship. Theres no way that a man like Gerry, with all his knowledge and his mind-set, would leave it to chance. When Perklin read that Cotten was the only person with the passwords to the companys holdings and had made no contingency plan should he be unable to access them, whether because of incapacitation, kidnapping, or death, my jaw kept on dropping to the point where it couldnt have dropped anymore.. "Some people think Gerald is still alive,somewherehe'sat the beach, sipping a Mai Tai;he's benefiting from all of the millions that were stolen from investors. In 2010 he graduated with a bachelors degree in business administration from an honors program at York Universitys Schulich School of Business in Toronto. On one particular margin account, he conducted 67,000 individual trades alone, placing enormous bets on fledgling currencies like Dogecoin, OmiseGO, and Zcash. After Gerrys death became public, she maintained that the attorneys decided to hold off on announcing it earlier. But it was not easy to buy or sell if you lacked technological sophistication and considerable patience. The yacht salesman had questions, though it was not his job to ask questions. There is yet another possibility, one that none of the cases investigators is willing to discount. Gox abruptly suspended operations, claiming that hackers had stolen $473 million from customer accounts. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. . As Quadriga customers tried to pull their money from the exchange, they were met with long waits to access their funds. Matt Galloway talks to his widow, Jennifer Robertson, about what she did and didnt know. Widow of Bitcoin trader Gerald Cotten who died owing $215M tells of Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018 and took keys to $250 million in cryptocurrency assets to his grave. "It never occurred to me [that he was breaking the law]," said Robertson. All rights reserved. The Seaglass Trustbecame the mortgage holder on all properties owned by Robertson Nova Property Management on Jan. 25. In HYIP chat rooms, Cotten and Patryn defended each other against angry investors and posed as satisfied clients of each others various businesses; Patryns tended to be payment processors, Cottens were marginally more sophisticated iterations of S&S Investments. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea Obituary -Gerald Cotten Wife, Death Cause, Alive or Death? Wikipedia The official cause of death was complications from Crohns disease, but the gastroenterologist who treated Cotten told the Globe and Mail that the death still haunted him. In the months that followed,investigatorsuncovered that Cotten had been moving money from the exchange into his personal accountsand engaging in other suspicious behaviour. In this way Cotten could have stowed away a fortune in foreign bank accounts in preparation for a grand exit. 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. EXIT SCAM @exitscampod Twitter profile | Pikagi When S&S suspended operations three months later, taking most of its clients funds with it, Patryn took to TalkGold to defend Cottens integrity. Under the Mastermind Theory, Cotten ran Quadriga much as he had S&S Investments and its successors, honoring enough withdrawal requests to maintain credibility. He also created dozens of false trading accounts to stimulate trading volume on the platforma fact he even disclosed in the 2015 filings. By painstakingly searching archived data from deleted websites, communicating on encrypted messaging services with anonymous sources, and analyzing public registration data, the Quadriga creditor who goes by the online moniker QCXINT, and a handful of other obsessives with handles like runbtc and Zerononcense, reconstructed the pairs entangled online lives. He was a founder and the CEO of Quadriga, Canadas dominant Bitcoin exchangesomething like TD Ameritrade for cryptocurrency. The median price for the properties was$346,000. Seventy percent of the global Bitcoin trade was conducted through Mt. Gerry the Mastermind might think he will get away with it. He cleared trees and built a house, though he had no apparent plans to move in. Upon pleading guilty to conspiring to transfer stolen identification documents, he was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Subsequently the brothers would gain Twitter notoriety for their incessant attacks on Donald Trump before they were shut down for operating fake accounts and purchasing followers.) It promised within 48 hours (usually within 18) a return of 103% to 150%, possibly more. In its prospectus, Cotten wrote: Im afraid Im not going to fill this section of the page with the usual bumph about how your returns are made. This meant that multiple customers were missing over $180 million. Cottens trades were so bizarre, and so risky, that this seemed plausiblejust as plausible, perhaps, as the idea that Cotten believed a series of Hail Mary bets on Zcash would come through. Or Michael from Italy. Seasick marine biologist, turned journalist. More than 75,000 Quadriga account holders also had questions. Eric Schletz, the pilot who brokered Cottens purchase of the Cessna 400, has described having seen Cotten walking through an airport with $50,000 in cash. Most of these early acolytes were drawn to the digital currencys libertarian ethos, its promises of decentralization, transparency, speed, and independence from governments and financial institutions. He sought a programmer who is familiar with Bitcoin to develop a website that would serve as an open market place, like a stock market, where people buy and sell Bitcoin. The design had to be simple, but professional and it had to be built quickly. Were excited, said Cotten at the time, to be able to provide an unparalleled level of transparency.. Cotten tried to scam Patryn; Patryn tried to counter-scam Cotten. Story of Quadriga's Trapped Cryptocurrency Fails Smell Test | Fortune In isolation this might be written off as teenage hijinksor at most light fraud. The following afternoon his condition deteriorated and blood tests indicated septic shock. Not least due to the fact that allegedly only Cotten knew the passwords to the cold wallets worth nearly $ 190 million. Call it the Mastermind Theory. . It put strangers at ease; it made him seem lighthearted. GROWING PAINS (At press time those pizzas would be valued at $82,373,500.) QuadrigaCX widow on missing millions and her new book | CTV News The public bid was a last-ditch effort to salvage a flailing Ponzi, exploiting positive press and public sympathy to bilk money from investors. Details Emerging On Death Of Crypto CEO Gerald Cotten: Report - NDTV Apart from that, Jennifer is studying to become an elementary school teacher and hopes to graduate soon. "He was the nicest, caring, most loving husband. During that time Quadriga continued to accept new funds but returned none. In 2017, Quadriga processed nearly $2 billion in trades from 363,000 individual accounts, taking a cut of every transaction. 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. As it turned out, Michael Patrynas Michael Perklin and nearly everyone in the close-knit Canadian cryptocurrency community had known for yearswas not really Michael Patryn. (Candace Berry. It took more than a month for QuadrigaCX to publicly announce Cotten's death and then another two weeks for Jennifer Robertson to admit the customer funds were inaccessible." Michael MacDonald (2019-07-16). That led to speculation that Cottenmayhave faked his own death. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. A year later, Canadas largest exchange, CaVirTex, announced its closure, also blaming hackers; the second-largest exchange, Vault of Satoshi, closed the same week. But looking at the information that I do know now, I do think he'd be the type of person who could orchestrate that.". The couple enjoyed the newfound wealth, traveling to exotic locations and buying properties in addition to a boat and a plane. It didn't take long for the withdrawals to become greater than Quadriga's profits. Hi, he said. The guy just always had a big goofy smile and laugh. It was also revealed that Cotten had written his will just four days before leaving for India. 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. There was also the fact that these were Canadian people, Canadian companies. It was just such a challenge.. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. They married in Scotland in October 2018. She was apologetic about people losing their money, saying, I would have never, ever stolen from other people. Be a smarter, safer investor in eight weeks. "I hadn't understood how Quadriga had held money in the first place;I thought it was just a trade," she said. The first Bitcoin block was created on January 3, 2009, and the currency gained economic value on May 22, 2010, a date enshrined in Bitcoin lore as Pizza Day, when a Florida man paid someone in England 10,000 Bitcoins to order him two pizzas from Papa Johns. 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.