The widow of Canadian cryptocurrency entrepreneur Gerald Cotten is receiving death threats from her husband’s creditors. The couple are suspected of staging the death of Cotten in 2018 in order to steal over $150 million.
Jennifer Robertson wrote about this in her autobiographical book. An excerpt from the memoir “Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and Missing Millions” The Walrus.
Gerald Cotten was the founder and CEO of the bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX. In December 2018, he died as a result of complications from Crohn’s disease while on his honeymoon with Robertson in India.
With his death, the funds of 76 thousand users of the exchange, which were stored in cold wallets, were blocked. Against this background, many clients doubted the death of the man, deciding that he simply disappeared with their assets.
The situation is fueled by the fact that Cotten’s death occurred four days after he made his will. He bequeathed all his assets and property, including a Lexus electric car, a Cessna aircraft and a 15-meter sailboat, to his wife.
QuadrigaCX hid the CEO’s death for a month before filing for bankruptcy. As a result, 215 million Canadian dollars, or $168 million at the current rate, invested by investors, disappeared, since only the head of the company knew the keys to cold wallets.
The Canadian financial regulator called the Ponzi scheme organized by Cotten the reason for the collapse of the exchange. Allegedly, he pumped out the assets of clients for personal use.
“I should not have been surprised that the story of the missing millions of QuadrigaCX caused a stir in the media. But I am still shocked that I became the object of threats – supposedly I should first be tortured and then killed in various terrible ways. I know that someone I just expressed my anger that way, but other people seemed extremely serious, ”says Jennifer Robertson in the book.
The woman writes that threats were received by phone, in emails and on social networks: “Our money or violence – the choice is yours, Jen”, “I will take another one to the team to kill Jen.” Detractors also threatened to kill her father and dogs. “I was too scared to just go outside,” the woman complains.
In her memoirs, Robertson writes that she met Cotten in 2014. The woman knew little about cryptocurrency and did not suspect that before her death, her chosen one was involved in fraudulent schemes.
“I tried to relate to the person I knew and loved, the smartest, funniest and kindest person I’ve ever met, who taught me so much, the only person who offered me unconditional love and made me feel like the only one in the world. , with a scammer that the media wrote about,” Robertson wrote. She acknowledged that her late husband should not have held “all the levers of running a billion-dollar company without internal or external oversight.”
In her autobiography, the woman claims to have been shocked by Cotten’s deceit and fraud. “Worst of all, Jerry mixed Quadriga’s earnings with his own, using investor funds to fund his lifestyle. Our life!” writes the bitcoin widow.
