Crypto exchange CEO filed will 12 days before his death
Gerald Cotten, the 30-yearold CEO and sole director of the cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX, filed a will 12 days before his death listing substantial assets, according to court documents.
Cotten, whose sudden death left $190 million in bitcoin and other digital assets locked in his laptop and protected by his passwords, signed his last will and testament on Nov. 27, 2018. He left all his assets to his wife, Jennifer Robertson, and made her the executor to his estate, the documents show.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Michael Wood granted Quadriga a 30-day stay on Tuesday in a bid to stop any lawsuits from proceeding against the insolvent company. The firm was also granted protection from creditors.
QuadrigaCX lawyer Maurice Chiasson said the orders were necessary to bring stability to a chaotic case punctuated by “threats, veiled and otherwise” of legal action. “This is an attempt to call a timeout,” he told the court, adding that the decision by QuadrigaCX’s newly appointed directors to shut down the site on Jan. 28 caused a “fair amount of panic.”
The exchange, launched in December 2013, allowed users to deposit cash or cryptocurrency with Quadriga through its online trading platform, storing the digital coins on blockchain ledgers that are accessible only by an immutable alphanumeric code. The company had 363,000 registered users, of which 92,000 have account balances owing to them, according to court filings.
His wife filed an affidavit with Nova Scotia Supreme Court saying Cotten was the only person with access to the laptop. She said she has searched their home in Fall River, N.S., where he conducted most of his business, and was unable to find any passwords or business records.
Cotten died Dec. 9 of complications due to Crohn’s disease in Jaipur, India, according to Robertson’s affidavit and a statement of death from J.A. Snow Funeral Home in Halifax, dated Dec. 12. The couple didn’t have any children.
The exchange founder’s will outlines numerous assets he held, including several properties in Kelowna, B.C.and Nova Scotia, a 2017 Lexus, an airplane, a Jeanneau 51 yacht and his pet chihuahuas, Nitro and Gully. He also left his frequent flyer points and reward points to Robertson. He held accounts with Bank of Montreal and Canadian Tire.
The firm can’t retrieve about $190 million in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether and other digital tokens held for its customers, nor can Vancouver-based Quadriga CX pay the $70 million in cash those clients are owed.
Cotten was conscious about security — the laptop, email addresses and messaging system he used to run the five-year-old business were encrypted. He took sole responsibility for the handling of funds and coins and the banking and accounting side of the business and, to avoid being hacked, moved the majority of digital coins into what’s known as cold storage, unconnected to the internet, the filing said.
Experts brought in to try to hack into Cotten’s other computers and mobile phone met with only “limited success,” according to his widow.