How to Disappear with $215,000,000

In 2019, one of the largest crypto frauds took place resulting in the bankruptcy of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and the loss of over C$215 million in client funds.

This true-life story of one young man who over a period of a few short years was able to build one of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and then ‘suddenly died’ with almost a quarter-billion dollars of his client’s funds missing.

This is the story of Gerald Cotten, the former CEO of QuadrigaCX

Gerald Cotten (born 11 May 1988) was a founder of what was at the time, Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — QuadrigaCX.

Co-founded in November 2013 with his partner Michael Patryn and located in Vancouver, British Columbia QuadrigaCX grew over the next 6 years to become the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada.

QuadrigaCX was one of the first businesses to introduce Bitcoin ATMs to the Vancouver market and by the end of 2014, the exchange had grown to over C$7.4 million in trades.

Two years later, in 2016 Cotten became the sole director of the company and in the following year, during the massive 2017 bull run (the price of Bitcoin went from $1,000 to almost $20,000), it was estimated the exchange transacted about C$1.2-billion worth of bitcoin.

To the outside world, this was just another cryptocurrency exchange until mid-January 2019.

On January 14, 2019, Quadriga informed its clients that the CEO had died (the month prior) from Crohn’s disease while doing volunteer work at an orphanage in India.

To make matters worse, the CEO was the only person with access to the private keys that held the client’s funds.

It was at this point in time the Quadriga house of cards began to fall.

Following court proceedings, financial auditors Ernst & Young were tasked with finding out what really happened to the lost client funds as well as provide the courts and creditors with a better understanding of how Quadriga conducted its business.

According to one of the auditor’s reports, there was no evidence to show Quadriga maintained any accounting records since at least 2016 and it had appeared that Cotten treated his customers’ assets as his personal slush fund.

The EY report also indicated the inappropriate use of the client’s funds, including the acquisition of significant assets (an airplane, yacht) and frequent travel to multiple vacation destinations often making use of private jet services.

In late 2000, the Ontario Securities Commission report on the review of QuadrigaCX concluded by saying that Gerald Cotten operated Quadriga like a Ponzi scheme.

What happened at Quadriga was an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology

Whether you take the Ontario Securities Commission report at face value, delve into the auditor’s reports or decide to do your own research into the many shady dealings that took place, what should be clear is that Gerald Cotten was not running a bonafide business, he was running something akin to a Ponzi scheme.

As with all Ponzi schemes, they collapse under their own weight and there are many indications that Cotten was well aware the end was near for Quadriga.

So, the question must be asked — What was his exit strategy?

The question of whether Cotten faked his own death first appeared on Reddit. Users entertained the idea that this was an exit scam to defraud his customers while others suggested that his death simply exposed the Ponzi Scheme.

An excellent video that covers this in detail and the entire mystery is Barely Sociable, and his video on this is highly recommended:

Is Gerald still alive?

What we do know with a high degree of confidence is that Gerald was running a Ponzi scheme and this house of cards was about to crumble. The big question is, what was his exit strategy?

Maybe he did fake his own death. Or maybe he died in the process? We may never know. Nevertheless, this wouldn’t have been the first time a person has frauded investors and then disappeared.

A few years earlier in October 2017, the self-proclaimed CryptoQueen, Ruja Ignatova, disappeared after taking investors of more than $400 million dollars in her OneCoin scam.

Source: https://altcoininvestor.medium.com/how-to-disappear-with-215-000-000-fa44cc8faa51?source=rss——-8—————–cryptocurrency