He never mentioned Patryn in her presence again. (Many who were born without white privilege, including nearly every Chinese person Ive met in Vancouver, has anglicized their name, says Patryn. It may be that he traded Quadrigas funds in a frantic effort to recoup the losses he had sustained. 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. He seemed lonely. It was a terrible, terrible moment," she said. With that, Bitcoin became like any other form of currency, a mass delusion: Its value derived from the belief that it had value. In the aftermath, Jennifer agreed to return $12 million from the estate as part of a settlement. 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. It was a terrible, terrible moment., She mostly remained away from the public spotlight apart from interview appearances in January 2022. Soon they were responding to each others public posts with inside jokes. If you lose the private key to your cryptocurrency walleta long, randomly generated password, all but impossible to memorizeyour funds are gone forever. 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. 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. When offered an electric motor for the life raft, the smiling boy gestured to his Tesla in the marinas parking lot. Eventually, an investigation revealed that Gerry had committed fraud using customer money. Overnight, Quadriga became Canadas dominant Bitcoin marketplace. When Cotten died, Jennifer and Cotten tied the knot a little earlier. The operator of an exchange on which Cotten opened accounts told Ernst & Young that Cotten had squandered most of his holdings on reckless trades. 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. 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. Perhaps Cottens obsessive foreign travelhe boasted of having visited more than 50 countries without ever having been searched by customswas inspired not by wanderlust but by strategy. We all want Bitcoin to succeed, and businesses in the Bitcoin industry to succeed, which encourages some level of self-delusion. A month passed before Robertson announced on Quadrigas Facebook page that Cotten had died. The following afternoon his condition deteriorated and blood tests indicated septic shock. Since the cost of Ernst & Youngs investigation is borne by the class, it made little sense to spend resources on highly speculative inquiries without assurance of success. It looked hollow.. There was no such constraint on the outraged creditorsor the true believers who saw in Quadrigas collapse an existential threat to cryptocurrencys integrity at just the moment it had assumed an eggshell veneer of legitimacy. 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. It concerned Quadrigas cofounder. He was always smiling, really friendly, offering stuff, says Alex Salkeld, a member of the original Vancouver Bitcoin circle. Among those Mueller warned was Amber Scott, an anti-money-laundering expert at a compliance firm in Toronto called Outlier Solutions. In this way Cotten could have stowed away a fortune in foreign bank accounts in preparation for a grand exit. He used to say he didnt open up to many people, but he was able to open up to me.. 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. Once he left it behind on the Gulliver, which caused a momentary hysteria as the yacht had already departed the dock. 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. She froze and said something about having to shampoo her cats. Robertson owns two other properties in her own name, including an island in Mahone Bay the couple purchased in September 2017 from Fox News personality Tucker Carlsonfor $161,250 well below the island's tax-assessed value of $349,400. [3] Robertson's first marriage, to Jacob Forgernon, ended in divorcer. There were rumors of other employees taking similar trips. In 2010 he graduated with a bachelors degree in business administration from an honors program at York Universitys Schulich School of Business in Toronto. Over several dozen hours of sailing lessons, the yacht dealer learned a few things about his customer. Forensically examining Instagram accounts, interviews, and police reports, author Kathleen Hale reconstructs their relationship, and ultimately Petitos murder. Quadriga raised nearly C$850,000 in private capital, but Cotten ultimately abandoned the effort after a dispute with one of the major investors. It didn't take long for the withdrawals to become greater than Quadriga's profits. You couldnt hook up your bank account to anywhere. Friends say he spoke of an emotionally absent father, manipulative family members, his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Cotten's com." The Walrus on Instagram: "Jennifer Robertson met her husband, Bitcoin entrepreneur Gerald Cotten, on Tinder. She expressed a desire to move on with the next chapter of my life. She may have to change her name one more time in order to do so. Every Bitcoin transaction appears in a public ledgerthe blockchainthat can be consulted by anybody with internet access. Most conspicuous was the odd way that the young man always seemed to be smiling. After his release in 2007, he was deported to Canada. Small said exhuming the body would be one way to lay those theories to rest. Crypto for Advisors What financial. The most successful of these was Midas Gold, incorporated in early 2008. Inside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushners Gilded Florida ParadiseFar From Donald Trump or 2024, Chaos lingers at the periphery, but the Trump-Kushner marriage is thriving in exile. But it was not easy to buy or sell if you lacked technological sophistication and considerable patience. Or Michael from Italy. All rights reserved. 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). The couple enjoyed the newfound wealth, traveling to exotic locations and buying properties in addition to a boat and a plane. 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. 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. They usually did the outreaching; nobody had reached out to them before. And I'll carry that shame with me, probably, every single day for the rest of my life," she said. When Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, the passcodes for his cryptocurrency exchange died with him. 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. If you blur your eyes, this narrativeGerry Tries to Make Goodnearly coheres. In 2014 Cotten spoke publicly of moving currencies between exchanges to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities. The will made no mention of the external hard drives, called cold wallets, in which Cotten had stored most of Quadrigas funds. More than 75,000 Quadriga account holders also had questions. In December 2018, Cotten died during his honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, in Jaipur, India. QuadrigaCX founder's widow owns $7.5M in Nova Scotia real estate | CBC News Loaded. 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. After the public bid failed, he kept no internal recordsan almost inconceivable state of affairs for a company with an annual trading volume of more than $1 billion. A year later, Canadas largest exchange, CaVirTex, announced its closure, also blaming hackers; the second-largest exchange, Vault of Satoshi, closed the same week. Amidturmoil in the cryptocurrency market, Cotten and Robertson got married and decided to travel to Jaipur, India, for their honeymoon. Pitbull is a pal, Carbone is for dinner, and, The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. Cotten himself warned of this danger during a 2014 interview. It served as an independent payment processor for Liberty Reserve: a digital currency that was operated by an American in Costa Rica and used by drug cartels, human traffickers, child pornographers, and Ponzis to launder money. "Whenever people put their money into the exchange, he sort of used it as his personal slush fund," she said. Quadriga CEO's widow speaks out over his death and the missing crypto millions | CBC News Loaded. Gox abruptly suspended operations, claiming that hackers had stolen $473 million from customer accounts. There were limits, furthermore, to the scope of the monitors investigation. Bitcoin was founded on the principle that no individual or institution should be trusted. 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 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 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. Gerry was a very careful person who well understood the need to back up ones private keys. "He was the nicest, caring, most loving husband. But when the banks, the law, and the forces of Reddit tried to track down the cash, it turned out the young mogul may not have been who he purported to be. And Ill carry that shame with me, probably, every single day for the rest of my life.. 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. In the months that followed,investigatorsuncovered that Cotten had been moving money from the exchange into his personal accountsand engaging in other suspicious behaviour. He was a founder and the CEO of Quadriga, Canadas dominant Bitcoin exchangesomething like TD Ameritrade for cryptocurrency. But it came from a place of organizationhe knew what he was doing. Cotten tried to scam Patryn; Patryn tried to counter-scam Cotten. Gerry appeared to have taken full control, says Andrew Wagner. TalkGold was a Ponzi clearinghouse, where blind faith and curdled cynicism engaged in a demonic rumba. The amateurs most valuable advantage is time. 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. Crypto Long & Short News and analysis for the professional investor. In the public narrative that emerged, derived largely from a meticulously detailed investigation by Canadas Globe and Mail, Cotten fell sick nine days into his Indian honeymoon, shortly after checking into the Oberoi Rajvilas in Jaipur on December 8, 2018. It put strangers at ease; it made him seem lighthearted. She later explained it, saying, I hadnt understood how Quadriga had held money in the first place; I thought it was just a trade. Jennifer only knew that she was paid a commission to process payments for QuadrigaCX via a firm set up in her name. They married four years later in October 2018, living a luxury lifestyle, including. 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. When Patryn told a stupid joke that nobody found funny, Cotten would burst into wild laughter. Deeds for properties she bought in 2016 show she was once known as Jennifer Forgeron. Thousands of customers paid his company to mine cryptocurrency for them. Nine days later Cotten is believed to have died due. 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. (In response to these allegations, Patryn denied the existence of check printing machines and pay stubs and suggested that visitors to the office were confused by scanners and cash counters.). 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. Still, the eulogies had a prismatic quality; viewed from an angle they suggested darker possibilities. "I hadn't understood how Quadriga had held money in the first place;I thought it was just a trade," she said. Then, in December, Robertson called Sunnybrook to explain that Gerry, while on their honeymoon in Jaipur, had died suddenly. She said she wants to move on with her life and hopes her new book, BitCoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions, is the final chapter of the Quadrigascandal. They asked me about 20 times if he was alive, says one witness who has intimate knowledge of Quadrigas workings and has been questioned by both agencies. The widow of cryptocurrency exchange founder Gerald Cotten, as well as a company registered in her name, own$7.5 million of Nova Scotia real estate that was purchased in the past 2years. Cbc.ca. He ran the business from his MacBook Pro, which he always carried with him. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. Most of the homes are in metro Halifax. The series delved into the plight of the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. On one particular margin account, he conducted 67,000 individual trades alone, placing enormous bets on fledgling currencies like Dogecoin, OmiseGO, and Zcash. He was my best friend. It's a possibility that I was wearing rose-coloured glasses.". Now recruiting: Nova Scotia starts testing foreign-trained family doctors, Meet the student who went straight from a Kenyan refugee camp to Acadia, Home repair program in Yarmouth County aims to patch gaps in getting help, CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices. He was driven to a private hospital and diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. Whats your goal? replied the yacht salesman, in the delicate manner of his trade. Jennifer Robertson told CBC's The National she knew nothing of the widespread fraud her husband had committed. After learning of his death, one of his contractors immediately went to the house and searched for it. Most people, a year after his death, already have. Far more likely is the narrative of Gerry the Royal Fuckup. 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. 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. At the time, he was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, a company that performed cryptocurrency exchanges. However, the couple never arrived at the house, and the honeymoon did not go as planned. After Bitcoin collapsedand the withdrawal complaints turned into lawsuits, negative press, and the threat of a formal investigationCotten got married, wrote a will, flew to India for his honeymoon, and disappeared. Despite additional travailsa software glitch that lost C$14 million, a cease-trade order from the British Columbia Securities Commission after Cotten failed to file an audit, and CIBCs seizure of C$21 million from one of its payment processors after the bank failed to determine its rightful ownerQuadriga profited wildly from Bitcoins giddy rise. "He also mentioned that the business would die without him," she said. The most effective and thorough investigation to date, however, has been conducted by anonymous accounts posting on Twitter, Reddit, Pastebin, and Telegram. Cottens reputation as a cryptocurrency true believer survived his death on December 9, 2018. It took some time for him to grow on her, but they eventually fell in love. This meant that multiple customers were missing over $180 million. Robertson said she understands many people have been hurt and lostlargesums due to the collapse of QuadrigaCX. We didnt want to cast doubt on our own scene. 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. It just seemed so out of character for Gerry not to have any kind of backup plan, says Michael Perklin, who started the worlds first blockchain security consultancy and had worked for CaVirTex. (Patryn, Jennifer Robertson, and at least a couple of other Quadriga contractors each operated their own payment processing firmsa significant conflict of interest, though not illegal.) She told clients and friends to avoid Quadriga. And I did think that was odd.". 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. 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. Gerald Cotten lied to thousands of investors in his crypto exchange, and deceived his wife Jennifer Robertson, a new book claims. When he did file, he claimed no income from Quadriga. Nobody followed up with him. 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. The company took a cut from every Bitcoin trade on its platform. Then he flew to India, where things managed to get even worse. Most HYIPs, including those previously operated by Cotten, were exit scams: Ponzis that, after reaching a critical volume, abruptly close up shop. 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. Cotten knew the catchphrases and the talking points, but he seemed most interested in Bitcoins speculative possibilities. By the time of his death, Cottens sham trading accountswhich had names like Aretwo Deetwo and Seethree Peaohhhad conducted approximately 300,000 trades. You don'thave like Aaron Matthews [Quadriga's director of operations] or anybody that would be able tokeep the company on? 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. In 2017, as the price of a Bitcoin shot to nearly $20,000, Quadriga processed nearly $2 billion in trades from 363,000 individual accounts. What if the furious trading on other exchanges near the end of his life was not careless but calculated? This summer day, however, he was dead serious. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. Patryn joined TalkGold on April 3, 2003, the year the site launched. "It has been the most unbelievable pain that I could ever imagine," she said. Gabby Petitos Life WithAnd Death ByBrian Laundrie. He might be living on a private island, or in Hong Kong, Thailand, or Monaco, traveling by yacht and helicopter and private jet. But just about every cryptocurrency expert in Canada had a Quadriga account. And the fact that he did what he did I carry his shame with me. Both men soon graduated, however. She is listed as itspresident, secretary and sole director. The body was returned to the Oberoi and then sent out again to be embalmed; the embalmer refused to accept a body from a hotel, so Oberoi employees took it to a local medical college, where a staffer performed the procedure. Barely more than 24 hours after the onset of a stomachache, he was pronounced dead. The major break in the investigation was not a revelation, exactly, but something that had been hiding in plain sight. It seemed like they had an understanding, and shared motives. 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. 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. Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea about the $215-million scam In an exclusive interview, Jennifer Robertson speaks out publicly about her deceased husband,. The Protocol Exploring the tech behind crypto. 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. Robertson said "everything was crazy" after Cotten died andher lawyers were the ones who decided to wait weeks before letting investors know about Cotten's death.