Gerry Cotten, founder of the company repchangeof QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency, died suddenly without telling anyone the password to his encrypted computer that stored his digital wallet password. Now the creditors are asking for his exhumation to make sure he is dead.
In late January, the wife of the founder of cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX testified that her husband died suddenly in India of Crohn's disease and inadvertently took at least $137 million of his estate to his grave. data of his company's customers.
The reason? He died without giving anyone the password to his encrypted laptop. Now, outraged investors want the heap to be exhumed to make sure it's really dead.
This strange story first reported in February , when the wife of Gerry Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, submitted a statement stating that her husband died suddenly while she was in India, at the age of 30. The cause: complications of Crohn's disease, an intestinal condition that is rarely fatal. At the time, QuadrigaCX lost control of at least $ 137 million in customer assets because the password was stored on a laptop that - according to the widow's affidavit - only Cotten knew the password to.
Widow Jennifer Robertson testified that she hired experts to try to decrypt the laptop, but they too failed.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that QuadrigaCX's customers' money that was not recovered was now estimated at $ 250 million. Meanwhile, police in Canada - where QuadrigaCX is located - and the United States are investigating possible irregularities, and investors are seeking proof that Cotten is in fact dead.
According to NYT, the lawyersterms representing the exchange's customers by Canadian police to exhume his body and conduct an autopsy "to confirm both his identity and cause of death." The letter cited "controversial circumstances surrounding Mr. Cotten's death as well as significant financial losses" and called for the exhumation and autopsy to be completed no later than "spring 2020, due to decay concerns."
How the exhumation and autopsy would lead to the recovery of the digital wallet or computer code is not clear.
