Bankrupt investors of crypto co want CEO’s body dug up

Scepticism around the death of Gerald Cotten, CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, just won’t go away.

The “questionable circumstances” behind Cotten’s demise at 30 last year in India led law firm representing customers of the collapsed trading platform to request his body be exhumed to help recover about $190million in Bitcoin which were locked in an online

black hole

after his death.


QuadrigaCX shut down in January, weeks after Cotten died while on his honeymoon, leaving some 76,000 users out of pocket for about C$215 million ($163 million) in cash and cryptocurrencies. Odd details surrounding his death and the mystery of what happened to clients’ Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, has fuelled speculation and conspiracy theories on the internet on whether he’s actually deceased. That prompted Miller Thomson LLP to write a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, asking that they “conduct an exhumation and autopsy on the body of Cotten to confirm both its identity and the cause of death given the questionable circumstances” and the losses of affected users.

Cotten died on December 12 last year of complications due to Crohn’s disease in Jaipur, India, according to an affidavit from his widow, Jennifer Robertson. Robertson has possession of the laptop that Cotten used to run the currency exchange and which contains the necessary passwords but she remains locked out as it is encrypted. Guardian reported on Friday that Cotten was the only one with access to necessary permissions.

“The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies’ business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key. Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere,” Robertson said in court filings according to the Guardian report.