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Trust No One: Where is Gerald Cotten and the Funds?

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@tykee
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A clip of The Bubble was on my friend's status last night, and it was pretty funny. I have not been watching movies because of so many things to fix, but it is the weekend and creating a few hours for movies doesn’t seem bad. I checked through Netflix and I saw the movie, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King. I watched the trailer, and I got more interested in this than the initial Bubble I wanted to watch.

I remember back in 2019 when buckleduddle mentioned that a CEO of a popular exchange in Canada died with access to the wallet and people’s funds were locked up. I think he mentioned he had used the exchange a couple of times before the death of the CEO.

I remember the only thing I checked then was the cause of his death. Because I thought, what could kill a young millionaire like that? He can afford all the treatment in the world. I saw Crohn’s disease. I checked through and looks like an intestinal disorder or something. I was like, oh shit!

I am a Nigerian and stay in Nigeria, so I ignored the entire story and still feel this is a complete flaw. How would an exchange CEO die and took all the money with him?

The Movie

The Movie started with introducing Quadrigacx and Gerald Cotten, the founder and CEO. He seemed to be a simple person and easygoing, plus he laugh over everything. After 2017, Gerald had already made a lot of money and was buying physical properties, like a jet, boat, houses, and an island. This made me think he was very rich. Quadrigacx was the leading crypto exchange at a point and everything look right to the people. However, before the announcement of the death of Gerald Cotten, users already had issues with withdrawing their assets. Over $215 million went missing after the death of Gerald, but liquidity was already a problem when he was alive.

The movie featured some Quadrigacx users, Ali, Tong, QCXINT, and others like journalist Alexandra and her assistant Joe.

Listening and watching how the entire thing went down is painful. Tong tried to avoid the shitty charges of 2% commission that the traditional bank will charge and used Quadrigacx to change all his lifesaving of $400,000 and the money remaining after he sold off his house.

QCXINT does not show his face throughout the documentary. I pictured him as the fox guy because he used a fox helmet. He seems to be a millionaire guy that has millions in the exchange when they closed up.

Ali is an AI consultant who planned to start up his company and moved $70,000 to Quadrigacx.

There is a general telegram group where all affected users are and they were all anguishing and angry over the loss of their money. They all started doing some investigation with the help of the Ontario Security Commission, and a lot of secrets unfolded.

First, Gerald Cotten started his life as a scammer and had scammed many people in the past before he started Quadrigacx. He was also married to one Jennifer Robertson, who was with him when he died in India. His co-founder Micheal Patryn was also another scam guy that changed his name and face after involving in a scam. Then the idea of Quadrigacx started intending to scam people. Also, while the exchange was running, Gerald was involved in gambling and he lost over $150 million.

He also sent fake cryptocurrency to users. There were too many shits about this Quadrigacx founders. When one of the journalists working on the case talked to the doctor that confirmed his death, the doctor explained how he died and it was strange how a 30-year-old person would die within a brief time of complications. There was also a claim that Jennifer Roberson was seen dancing after the funeral of the husband. Well, no one saw the body of Gerald Cotten. And for some people, the next target is to find Jennifer Roberson.

A lady, Taylor, knows some of the public addresses of the exchange hot wallets and when she searched on the on chain data, millions of dollars were being sent out after his death. Also, there was no cold wallet for the exchange.

The documentary explains a lot about Quadrigacx, but no fact was established. The doctor claimed he died but $ can make any man say anything. I am not saying the doctor had collected money, but there was no fact. The body would have been the only fact. They carried out no autopsy and a multi-millionaire exchange CEO was just buried like that.

My thought

It is a sad thing in the crypto space. I pity the Tong guy more than any other user. You could feel the pain even in the movie. But I think it is important to always manage risk when dealing with a large amount of money in the crypto space, especially in CEXs. They have access to your money and they can manoeuvre anytime. I remember when I sent some Steem coin to Poloniex 4 years ago. It was around $500 and I did not get my credit for over 9 months. They credited my account after I had written over 20 tickets, calling them many names.

I did some transactions using some P2P services, and I had to break down the transactions. I did 10% of my total transaction at once. So, if I intend to exchange $10,000. I tried $1,000 per transaction. Things are still pretty unregulated and there are many losers out there planning for your hard-earned money. Imagine working for over 10 years and your 10 years of effort disappear overnight. It is a bad thing to experience.

This is a movie for every cryptocurrency users out there. We all can learn from this.

Thanks for reading!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW2BPQ15OSw

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