Bitcoin investors dies update

bitcoin investors dies update

Millions of dollars in crypto assets have already been lost due to the death of investors who had no backup plan. Here's how not to lose. After Gerald W. Cotten died last year, his clients at the cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX found themselves unable to gain access to at. When Gerald Cotten, a Canadian cryptocurrency entrepreneur, died suddenly in India in , it was not only his furious clients. bitcoin investors dies update Episode 2 of A Death in Cryptoland:

QCX-INT said that searches alone for the domain names used for Quadriga and Quadriga Financial Services would "yield up a name, an address, an email, a phone number. And those can be revealing, because they can be used to connect to other data points."

He built a web of connections that linked Cotten to dozens of websites, and ultimately traced him to the online handle Sceptre, bitcoin investors dies update. "It was a real breakthrough," said QCX-INT. By making that connection, he said, "there's a pattern of activity that doesn't just stretch back a few months, it stretches back years and years."

QCX-INT's sleuthing revealed a history of fraudulent behaviour dating to the summer ofwhen Sceptre signed on to TalkGold, an online forum where he would promote HYIPs, or high yield investment programs. Essentially Ponzi schemes, bitcoin investors dies update, they promised very high returns but were unregulated and anonymous, disclosing little or no details about the investment or who was behind it.

Investors on TalkGold used handles like Moolahoops, Skunktoes and Mozart. The exchange of funds between investors and Sceptre would also be anonymous, and they would hide their transactions by using the earliest forms of digital currency.

(Amedeo De Palma/CBC)

Although some investors may have been genuinely misled, for the most part, it was like online gambling. The more people that bought into the scheme, the more money you made, as long as you were among the first ones out. The last ones out would be left holding the bag.

"People would at first see a return on their investment. And if they wanted, they could pull their money out. But eventually, usually within, like, a matter of weeks or sometimes months, the website would just go offline," said Joe Castaldo, a business reporter at the Globe and Mail who also investigated Cotten's early activities on TalkGold.

"The operator would disappear and people lost their money. And there was no way, no recourse for them, because they didn't know who was running the website, bitcoin investors dies update. The digital currency transactions were completely anonymous. There's no way to trace them. So they just lost their money and that was it."

"You don't really realize just how childlike he was."

Just as one of Sceptre's schemes would dry up, leaving angry investors in the lurch, he five top stocks to invest in set up a new one. Cotten would have been just 15 years old at the time.

During this research, QCX-INT also found a handful of websites linked to Cotten that offered a proxy service that would reroute a user's internet bitcoin investors dies update so that their IP address would be hidden — websites with names like www.oldyorkcellars.com and www.oldyorkcellars.com It appears he was creating sites that helped other people disguise themselves in the digital space.

In a screen capture from the Wayback Machine, one of those websites reads: "You can access virtually any site through our servers, and your boss or teachers won't know about it!"

During QCX-INT's investigations, the discovery that gnawed at him the most was a YouTube channel called GerryRulz. It was Cotten's personal account, and featured videos he had posted of himself in his early twenties.

"I think until you see him on video and in kind of his private life, you don't really realize just how childlike he was," QCX-INT said.

There was Cotten hanging his brother, Bradley, over a railing by his legs in an experiment to see whether he could drink upside down. There were also videos of Cotten burning various items — a Winnie the Pooh doll, a walnut, hair mousse, even Pokemon cards, bitcoin investors dies update.

The one that struck QCX-INT the most was Cotten taking a $20 bill and melting it in the microwave, bitcoin investors dies update. That video was posted inabout a year bitcoin investors dies update Cotten launched Quadriga with Michael Patryn. QCX-INT saw it as an omen.

The burning of money "was actually quite sickening to watch," he said. "It made me bitcoin investors dies update uneasy — just the thought that this guy had been in charge of several hundred million dollars and that myself and other Quadriga customers or creditors had trusted him with our funds."

IV. When Gerry met Michael

After the news of Cotten's death emerged in January, Michael Patryn, Quadriga's co-founder, told CBC News that Cotten once admitted to him that he "didn't open up to many people."

But Patryn said "he was able to open up to me and he was like a brother to me."

Asked how they had met, Patryn said Cotten had been living in Ontario and he had been in Montreal when they ran into each other bitcoin investors dies update a few group events, before settling in Vancouver in

During the reporting for the podcast, CBC asked Patryn if he had met Cotten on TalkGold.

He responded by email, "I met Gerry in person at a restaurant in Ontario. We did not meet online on any forum."

But QCX-INT's vast trail of data points connected the two on TalkGold, where Patryn operated under his last name. It's not clear when the two first met online, but there are posts of Sceptre and Patryn interacting that date back to

"You go back and you look at a pattern of posts on TalkGold they're kind of running flank and running cover for each other and that extends out in other forums," QCX-INT said. "Sceptre and Patryn were like two peas in a pod."

This screenshot captured on the Wayback Machine shows Patryn listed as Sceptre’s friend on the online forum TalkGold. (TalkGold)

When Patryn suddenly disappeared from TalkGold in Octoberposts about him being a convicted felon started to appear on the forum. Around that time there was news of arrests of individuals involved in a criminal network of fraudsters.

For many years, Patryn passed it off as just rumours, misinformation spread by his enemies and competitors, bitcoin investors dies update. But despite his denials, his past is well-documented in public and court records. Not only that, bitcoin investors dies update, those records reveal that Michael Patryn isn't even his original name.

Born Omar Dhanani, he changed his name twice, to Omar Patryn and years later to Michael Patryn.

Inat the age of 22, Omar Dhanani pleaded guilty for his role in an identity theft ring called www.oldyorkcellars.com It was an online marketplace where people could buy stolen bank and credit card numbers, passports and other wares to commit identity fraud.

According to Brett Johnson, one of the creators bitcoin investors dies update www.oldyorkcellars.com, Dhanani was a money mule who went by another alias, Voleur (or "thief" in French). Johnson, an ex-felon-turned-podcaster, says Dhanani offered a service laundering illicit funds through an anonymous digital currency called E-Gold.

"Omar began offering a prepaid debit card," Johnson said in an interview bitcoin investors dies update the CBC. "You'd send him dollars with E-Gold. He would charge maybe five, eight per cent. And then he would put, you know, dollars onto the prepaid debit card so you could take it to an ATM and cash it out."

Johnson explained that two decades ago, bitcoin investors dies update, cryptocurrency didn't exist as it does today, but that E-Gold, in principle, was like bitcoin.

Johnson said bitcoin is "just a means to transfer value" and that E-Gold "is a precursor to bitcoin investors dies update cryptocurrency. The only thing that E-Gold lacked was the blockchain."

www.oldyorkcellars.com was eventually shut down by the United States Secret Service. Omar Dhanani was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the U.S. and then deported to Canada.

Omar Dhanani, a.k.a. Michael Patryn, <i>bitcoin investors dies update</i>, was 22 when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit identity theft and credit card fraud for his role in the cyber-crime forum www.oldyorkcellars.com (Passaic County Jail)

Michael Patryn eventually admitted to CBC that he'd done time, but added that these were the past transgressions of a young man.

Serving "a few months in a foreign country for a white collar crime" was "generally considered to be an unfortunate part of your childhood that you suffered the consequences for. Not a lifelong badge of dishonor," Patryn wrote in text messages with the CBC during the reporting of this story.

In a more recent email exchange with CBC in response to questions about his role in www.oldyorkcellars.com, Patryn downplayed it, calling the takedown a show.

"U.S. law enforcement referred to all unlicensed crypto exchanges as money laundering and dark nets as 'international criminal organizations.' This allowed for more of a media spectacle, while arresting children selling credit card numbers over the internet," he wrote.

The American authorities would eventually bust Liberty Reserve.

In the year following his release from prison, Omar Patryn officially changed his name to Michael Patryn and set up another digital bitcoin investors dies update exchange operating on the web called Midas Gold. It operated as an intermediary, selling digital currencies for a business out of Costa Rica called Liberty Reserve. M-Gold offered its clients anonymity in sending and receiving funds internationally.

The American authorities would eventually bust Liberty Reserve, bitcoin investors dies update, shutting down what it called at the time the largest international money laundering operation in history, and putting its CEO, Arthur Bitcoin investors dies update, behind bars.

That case caught QCX-INT's attention while he was doing his research, prompting him to request hundreds of pages of court documents from the Southern District of New York.

"It was a little bit of a long shot going through that data, but I got a hit," he said. Buried in hundreds of pages of court filings, QCX-INT found Gerald Cotten's email address listed as Midas Gold's contact.

No criminal charges were ever laid against Cotten or Patryn in relation to the case, but the shuttering of Liberty Reserve effectively put Midas Gold out of business in May

But the two would be back in business later that year, launching a cryptocurrency exchange called QuadrigaCX.

V. Where&#;s the money, Gerry?

While QCX-INT dug up a lot of information on Cotten and Patryn's history prior to forming Quadriga, a motherlode of information about what actually went down at the crypto exchange came through more official channels.

After Quadriga's spectacular collapse in Januarythe Supreme Court of Nova Scotia appointed Ernst and Young to look for the missing quarter of a billion dollars owed to creditors, with the most shocking report released in June The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) also did their own investigation and released the results of their review in June

What was clear in both of their findings was that Quadriga's asset shortfall was a result of Cotten's fraudulent activity. "What happened at Quadriga was an old-fashioned fraud wrapped in modern technology," the OSC report said.

Cotten created fictitious accounts and was trading at times in fake dollars and fake bitcoin, bitcoin investors dies update. His largest account was under the alias Chris Markay and at one point, he credited himself with single deposits of $ million and $50 million dollars, respectively. He had other fake accounts, too: Aretwo Deetwo, Seethree Peaohhh — and Sceptre Gerry.

The OSC report also found that in the first year of operation, Cotten was involved in the majority of trades on Quadriga. Unbeknownst to customers, he was the counterparty in more than 87 per cent of the bitcoin trades done on his bitcoin investors dies update company's platform in

“He couldn’t control himself and blew just an absolutely eye-popping amount of money.”

The investigations also uncovered that Cotten mixed customer funds with his own. The Ontario securities regulator found that between andCotten transferred millions of dollars of his clients' funds to his and Robertson's personal accounts to buy multiple properties, and fund their living and travel expenses.

Jennifer Robertson, <b>bitcoin investors dies update</b>, seen here with Gerald Cotten during their wedding celebrations, confirmed to CBC through her lawyer that &#;she was with Mr. Cotten at the time of his death and he is most certainly dead.&#; (Candace Berry Photography/Facebook)

QCX-INT couldn't get that kind of access to Cotten's activities, but he wasn't surprised by the OSC's findings. To QCX-INT, it followed a pattern of "impulsive behaviour."

"He couldn't control himself, by the looks of things, and blew just an absolutely eye-popping amount of money," he said.

The OSC reported that Cotten used his customer funds for speculative trades on other cryptocurrency exchanges, bitcoin investors dies update. And when the price of bitcoin was crashing, he'd try to make up for losses by essentially gambling customer funds, digging himself into a hole.

"He was an inveterate gambler … an abysmal bitcoin investors dies update who lost tens of millions on some of these speculative trades," QCX-INT said.

So in the end, when customers wanted to withdraw funds, bitcoin investors dies update, Cotten became dependent bitcoin investors dies update new money coming into the exchange. And the gap between the real and the fake money just got bigger.

"Quadriga was a house of cards, and then it was a Ponzi scheme," said journalist Amy Castor. "I mean, where were the regulators?"

Quadriga had been registered with the British Bitcoin investors dies update Securities Commission, which issued a cease trade order inwhen it failed to file financial statements.

It was also registered, bitcoin investors dies update, in its early years, with FINTRAC, Canada's money laundering watchdog, as a money service business. The agency would not comment on what it did — if anything — to ensure Quadriga followed regulations. A spokesperson for FINTRAC wrote to CBC that the agency was prohibited by law to disclose bitcoin investors dies update information to the public.

Patryn says he had no idea what Cotten was up to, insisting he parted ways with the company in January over a disagreement with Cotten about listing Quadriga on the Canadian Securities Exchange. The company never did go public, and although Patryn remained a beneficial shareholder — holding more than 18 per cent of the company's shares, according to an affidavit he filed in court — it would appear that Cotten controlled the company from until its collapse.

In a statement released in October in response to the revelations of fraud in the Ernst and Young reports, Jennifer Robertson said she was unaware of Cotten's "improper actions," that "she was not aware of, nor did she participate in Gerry's trading activities, nor his appropriation of customer funds."

She added that she was "upset and disappointed" to learn about what Cotten had been up to.

In a voluntary settlement agreement made in the fall of as part of the company's bankruptcy, Robertson offered to return $12 million worth of assets to Quadriga creditors, assets she says she believed were purchased legitimately with Cotten's earned profits, salary and dividends, bitcoin investors dies update.

Of the roughly 76, creditors who had money tied up on the exchange, in the end, only 17, made claims. About $46 million was recovered, and each creditor is expected to get about 10 per cent back, although the process is still ongoing.

The RCMP would not comment on the creditors' call to exhume the body, nor would police comment on the ongoing investigation. The FBI is also mum and won't comment until the case is closer to completion.

This image, of cash <b>bitcoin investors dies update</b> on Cotten’s kitchen counter at his <b>bitcoin investors dies update</b> in Kelowna, B.C., was part of the evidence collected by the Ontario Securities Commission in its investigation of QuadrigaCX. (Ontario Securities Commission)

Creditors who have contacted the RCMP are frustrated by what appears to be a lack of action on the part of the law enforcement agency.

"It's theft," said QCX-INT. "You know, it's like a $million bank job could happen, and you've got a law enforcement agency that does next bitcoin investors dies update nothing about investigating it."

QCX-INT was in contact with a fraud investigator in the RCMP's financial crime unit in the Toronto area, providing him with results of his data investigation and information gathered through sources bitcoin investors dies update the way.

"Even when there is hard evidence of fraud provided to them, you know, they would continually come back and say to us, 'We need more evidence, even in order to investigate,'" he said. "I felt like I actually had to present them with a bloody corpse and a gun with fingerprints on it in order just to get them to investigate."

"I'm not convinced he's dead."

Amy Castor, the journalist, said that Cotten "had been running Ponzi [schemes] from the time he was a kid." Based on what has emerged since his disappearance, "he was operating a massive Ponzi scheme and it was going down in a big way. He knew he'd have to face the piper. So he had to either face maybe going to jail for fraud or find another way out of there."

Without official confirmation from RCMP bitcoin investors dies update the body buried in Halifax is that of Gerald Cotten, suspicions persist about whether he could still be out there.

"I'm not convinced he's dead," Castor said. "I wouldn't be surprised if one day, you know, we saw a press release come out from the U.S. Department of Justice that said he was arrested somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if other people were implicated in his exit scheme."

QCX-INT believes the balance of probabilities points to Cotten being dead, but said he'd be happy to be shown otherwise.

In the meantime, he continues to keep an eye on the blockchain. He said funds are still moving in accounts connected to Quadriga, bitcoin investors dies update, and that the activity is "unusual." He wouldn't elaborate further, for fear of compromising active investigations.

"We are not treating this as closed. There are still individuals out there who we bitcoin investors dies update have benefited from the fraud of Quadriga. Now, bitcoin investors dies update, we've got some suspicions about who that might be. And that means that they don't want me to be doing what I'm doing."

With files from Eunice Kim, Yvette Brend and Rignam Wangkhang

Источник: [www.oldyorkcellars.com]

MONTREAL (AFP, REUTERS) - Investors in a cryptocurrency exchange who lost access to millions of dollars when the website's Canadian founder died abruptly, are demanding his body be exhumed to rule out any chance that he faked his own death.

The case focuses on the sudden death of Bitcoin investors dies update founder Gerald Cotten, who passed away aged 30 from Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition, in December while traveling in India, taking all the passwords to the site's funds with him to the grave.

The young tech entrepreneur was the only one who knew the codes, which afforded access to some C$ million (S$ million) in cryptocurrencies, belonging toclients.

A letter sent on Friday (Dec 13) on behalf of the exchange's clients by law firm Miller Thomson, demanded that bitcoin investors dies update Royal Canadian Mounted Police "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 his death.

Cotten's widow, Jennifer Robertson, said she could not find the passwords to his laptop computer on which he ran his business from the eastern Canadian city of Halifax.

With rumours and conspiracy theories swirling that Cotten might have faked his own death and made off with the funds, the company placed itself under bankruptcy protection and Ms Robertson said she had received death threats on the internet.

The law firm is demanding that the exhumation of Cotten's body be carried out by spring"given decomposition concerns."

Ms Robertson issued a statement via her own legal representatives saying she was "devastated" by the demand.

The Canadian federal police had not made any comment in response to an AFP request by Monday.

QuadrigaCX - a trading venue for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum - had previously filed for creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

It was cited a as one of the two biggest "frauds" that drove the surge in cryptocurrency theft this year, according to a report from blockchain forensics company CipherTrace obtained by Reuters.

The other big case saw users and customers lose US$ billion (S$ billion) from an alleged Ponzi scheme involving crypto wallet and exchange, PlusToken.

The report said losses from digital currency crime soared to US$ billion in the first nine months of the year, up more than per cent from US$ billion in all of

"The per cent increase in crypto theft and fraud reflects how criminals are adapting for bigger and better scores," Dave Jevans, CipherTrace chief executive officer, told Reuters.

"Criminals chase money and the money is right here and ripe for the taking. Little attacks are often easy to defend against, but targeted attacks are far more lucrative," he added.

Источник: [www.oldyorkcellars.com]
www.oldyorkcellars.coms && skyboxDesktop) { // functionality for non-5x5 skybox ads www.oldyorkcellars.com('ad-tech-skybox-container--sticky'); if (www.oldyorkcellars.comHeight > 0) { www.oldyorkcellars.comgTop = `${www.oldyorkcellars.comHeight}px`; } // only remain sticky for 3 seconds to keep visibility if user // immediately scrolls on page load setTimeout(() => { www.oldyorkcellars.com('ad-tech-skybox-container--sticky'); www.oldyorkcellars.comgTop = '0px'; }, ); } } }, ); } }); // Returns a function, that, as long as it continues to be invoked, will not // be triggered. The function will be called after it stops being called for // N milliseconds. If `immediate` is passed, trigger the function on the // leading edge, instead of the trailing. // @CREDIT: www.oldyorkcellars.com function debounce(func, wait, immediate) { var timeout; return function() { var context = this, args = arguments; var later = function() { timeout = null; if (!immediate) www.oldyorkcellars.com(context, args); }; var callNow = immediate && !timeout; clearTimeout(timeout); timeout = setTimeout(later, wait); if (callNow) www.oldyorkcellars.com(context, args); }; }; // all ad placeholers in dom const adTechPlaceholders = www.oldyorkcellars.comelectorAll('.js-ad-tech-placeholder'); // Store the window width let windowWidth = www.oldyorkcellars.comidth; // add a class on resize so we can target with css www.oldyorkcellars.comntListener('resize', debounce(() => { // Check window width has actually changed and it's not just iOS triggering a resize event on scroll if (www.oldyorkcellars.comidth != windowWidth) { // Update the window width for next time windowWidth = www.oldyorkcellars.comidth www.oldyorkcellars.comh(placeholder => { www.oldyorkcellars.com('ad-tech-placeholder--resized'); }); } }), ); })();