Gerry Cotten, founder of cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, 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 QuadrigaCX, a cryptocurrency exchange, testified that her husband died suddenly in India from Crohn's disease and inadvertently took to his grave at least $137 million of the assets of his firm's clients.
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 unclaimed QuadrigaCX client funds are now estimated at $250 million. Meanwhile, the police of Canada – where QuadrigaCX is based – and the United States are investigating possible wrongdoing and investors are demanding proof that Cotten is in fact dead.
According to NYT, lawyers representing the exchange's clients from the Canadian police to exhume his body and conduct an autopsy "to confirm both his identity and the cause of death". The letter referred to "controversial circumstances surrounding Mr Cotten's death as well as significant money losses" and called for the exhumation and autopsy to be completed no later than "spring 2020 due to decay concerns".
The manner in which the exhumation and autopsy would lead to recovery of the digital wallet or computer code is not clear.
