Jilted investors in a defunct cryptocurrency company want to confirm the death of the business’s founder by exhuming his remains.
Gerald Cotten, 30, held the virtual keys to a whopping $137 million in online currency kept in “digital wallets,” when he died suddenly last year of complications of Crohn’s Disease, according to the BBC. The QuadrigaCX founder was the sole person with passwords to the wallets — and only $25 million of the funds have been recovered. The company had 115,000 customers.
Rumors have been swirling online that Cotten faked his own death and ran off with the funds after an investigation by Ernt & Young alleged Cotten had created Quadriga accounts under different names, and that “substantial funds” were transferred to him.
That has prompted lawyers for some QuadrigaCX customers to request exhumation of Cotten’s remains, and an autopy on the corpse “to confirm both its identity and the cause of death,” claiming new information “further highlight(s) the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr. Cotten is in fact deceased.”
It’s unclear how an exhumation would help people get their money back, Cotten’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, said in a statement to the BBC via her lawyer.
The widow “is heartbroken to learn of this request,” adding her late husband’s death “should not be in doubt,” according to the statement.
The QuadrigaCX scandal is the second major crypto-scandal to hit the esoteric market. In October 2017, self-proclaimed CryptoQueen, Ruja Ignatova, disappeared after bilking investors of more than $400 million dollars in her OneCoin scam.