Lawyers of Quadriga CX’s users are requesting Canadian government to do the exhumation of late Gerald Cotten to make sure it’s really him.
Last year Cotten has passed away while on a trip to India. He ran the biggest crypto fund in Canada. He was the only person in his company who knew the password to all the crypto funds. Since he has passed away noone can cash out more than $250m in funds.
The exchange had more than 100,000 users. Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court had issued a Termination and Bankruptcy Assignment Order earlier this year outlining the bankruptcy proceedings.
Pursuant to the Order of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, issued February 28, 2019 (the “Representative Counsel Appointment Order”), Miller Thomson LLP and Cox & Palmer (together, “Representative Counsel”), were appointed as Representative Counsel on behalf of users affected by the shutdown of the Quadriga CX cryptocurrency exchange platform (collectively, the “Affected Users”).
The purpose of this letter is to request, on behalf of the Affected Users, that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the “RCMP”), conduct an exhumation and post-mortem autopsy on the body of Gerald Cotten to confirm both its identity and the cause of death given the questionable circumstances surrounding Mr. Cotten’s death and the significant losses of Affected Users.
Enclosed please find a detailed compilation (the “Background Material”, at Schedule “A”) of publicly available information on the history of Quadriga, Gerald Cotten and others related to Quadriga which, in our view, further highlight the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr. Cotten is in fact deceased.
Representative Counsel respectfully requests that this process be completed by Spring of 2020, given decomposition concerns.
The Background Material has been created from publicly available information on the Quadriga matter.
Should the RCMP require anything further, Representative Counsel is available to assist.
MILLER THOMSON LLP
Letter to the RCMPThe lawyers for the users have sent a letter to RCMP asking the RCMP “to confirm both its identity and the cause of death given the questionable circumstances surrounding Mr. Cotten’s death and the significant losses of Affected Users.”
The exchange had the money stored in “cold wallets”, a way to protect them from hackers. But since Cotten had the passwords noone else can access them.
The letter from the lawyers also outlined “the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr. Cotten is, in fact, deceased.”
