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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
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It's really a story about
betrayal and lying and greed.
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[Clapping]
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We're here to
talk about bitcoin.
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00:00:52,019 --> 00:00:54,086
So, Gerald, starting with you.
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00:00:54,088 --> 00:00:57,956
So I created quadrigacx in 2013
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and we basically are now the
largest exchange in Canada
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for buying and selling bitcoin.
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[Clapping]
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Congratulations.
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[Amy] Before Gerald
cotten died in India at age 30,
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00:01:10,504 --> 00:01:13,105
nobody could get their
money off the exchange.
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00:01:14,575 --> 00:01:17,810
[Alexandra] It's amazing that
the biggest question I have
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00:01:17,812 --> 00:01:22,114
is whether or not a person died.
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00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:33,025
["Greed and gold" by
Seth lakerman playing]
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00:01:38,165 --> 00:01:41,233
[Reporter 1] Reported death of Nova
Scotia businessman Gerald cotten is tragic.
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[Reporter 2] When the 30-year-old
died suddenly last month...
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Leaving apparently,
250 million dollars
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in cryptocurrency locked
on his personal laptop.
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00:01:55,049 --> 00:01:57,683
Sounds pretty bleak for
investors trying to get their money.
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00:01:57,685 --> 00:01:59,017
[Reporter 3] Cotten's
widow, she doesn't know
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00:01:59,019 --> 00:02:02,121
the passwords to her
late husband's laptop.
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00:02:04,058 --> 00:02:07,426
[Reporter 4] Most of the money
is locked away in cyber space.
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00:02:11,799 --> 00:02:14,166
This is a real mystery
that's unfolding this morning.
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00:02:14,168 --> 00:02:17,803
[Reporter 5] Right now
investors, they can do nothing.
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00:02:17,805 --> 00:02:19,638
[Reporter 6] Something
is tremendously fishy
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00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:22,875
about this whole exchange
of where exactly the ceo went.
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00:02:22,877 --> 00:02:26,311
Conspiracy theorists
suggest cotten faked his death.
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00:02:35,222 --> 00:02:36,989
[Reporter 7] Unless
cotten made arrangements.
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[Man] A dead man's
switch would be something
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00:02:38,893 --> 00:02:42,361
that Gerry would've had to
set up before he passed away.
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00:02:42,363 --> 00:02:44,163
[Female reporter] Investors
are looking for answers.
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00:02:44,165 --> 00:02:45,397
Where is this money?
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00:02:46,834 --> 00:02:52,004
♪ Greed and gold ♪
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♪ forever the loneliest road ♪
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There's so much intrigue, there's
so much funny business, you know?
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00:03:21,669 --> 00:03:23,602
So, it's kind of like
connecting dots
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00:03:23,604 --> 00:03:25,204
and see what you
can come up with.
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00:03:25,206 --> 00:03:28,140
[David] Maybe he was going to
fake his death. Maybe he actually died.
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00:03:28,142 --> 00:03:30,976
- I don't know.
- That's another good question.
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00:03:31,912 --> 00:03:33,979
[Amy] I am an
independent journalist
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00:03:34,548 --> 00:03:36,949
and I research cryptocurrency.
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00:03:36,951 --> 00:03:40,152
First I got interested in it
because of the technology
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00:03:40,154 --> 00:03:45,557
and then over time that led to, uh,
a fascination with financial crimes.
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00:03:58,105 --> 00:03:59,404
Joe!
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00:04:00,808 --> 00:04:02,074
[Alexandra] I'm a
business reporter.
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00:04:02,076 --> 00:04:03,942
I generally cover
capital markets,
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00:04:03,944 --> 00:04:07,813
but I've also kind of
taken up this side hobby
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00:04:07,815 --> 00:04:12,017
of writing about the sort of
wacky world of cryptocurrency.
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00:04:12,019 --> 00:04:15,621
I still sometimes just think
about this story all this time later.
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00:04:15,623 --> 00:04:17,956
- What do you still think about?
- I don't know.
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00:04:17,958 --> 00:04:19,925
There's so many crazy
theories out there on the Internet.
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00:04:19,927 --> 00:04:22,961
I found out about
quadriga very early on.
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00:04:25,966 --> 00:04:30,402
It was 2013, I was an intern at
the Canadian press newswire
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00:04:30,404 --> 00:04:36,341
and came across the fact that Canada
was getting its first ever bitcoin atm.
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00:04:37,978 --> 00:04:39,845
[Female reporter] It's now up and
running at the waves coffee shop
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00:04:39,847 --> 00:04:41,346
in downtown Vancouver.
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00:04:41,348 --> 00:04:43,882
[Male reporter] The virtual
currency is traded in cyber space
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00:04:43,884 --> 00:04:46,451
and stored in the
user's online wallet.
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00:04:46,453 --> 00:04:48,387
[Female reporter] And you
go to a business that accepts it,
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00:04:48,389 --> 00:04:51,189
they ring you up, you can
scan a code on your phone,
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00:04:51,191 --> 00:04:55,327
your balance goes down and now
you're enjoying your morning cup of tea.
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00:04:58,065 --> 00:05:01,033
[Amy] A bitcoin atm is
a standalone machine
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00:05:01,035 --> 00:05:03,835
where you can
go up, put in cash,
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00:05:03,837 --> 00:05:06,305
and you can buy
bitcoin just like that.
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00:05:15,783 --> 00:05:17,582
Once you go
through a bitcoin atm
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00:05:17,584 --> 00:05:20,185
you've got your bitcoin
and then you can
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00:05:20,187 --> 00:05:22,487
begin trading it on an
exchange like quadriga.
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00:05:30,030 --> 00:05:34,232
[Clapping]
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00:05:34,234 --> 00:05:35,967
So, for those of you
who aren't familiar
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with bitcoin exchanges
and what we do.
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I like to compare it
to a stock exchange,
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however, instead
of trading stocks
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on our exchange,
people trade bitcoin.
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You have buyers
and you have sellers,
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and they get matched, and
they transact with one another.
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[Man] Our guest tonight is
Michael patryn from quadriga.
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00:06:04,131 --> 00:06:08,300
Well, in mid-2013 the only exchange
of note in Canada was vortex,
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they had a monopoly which
many believe they were abusing.
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So the co-founder
Gerald and I believed
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that we could do better
and, uh, quadriga was born.
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00:06:19,546 --> 00:06:25,016
Michael patryn was about
five years older than Gerald,
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so he, you know, I think he
was like a big brother to them.
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[Keyboard clacking]
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So he was one of the people that taught
Gerald the ropes in this sort of business.
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[Ryan] As far as, uh, crypto
exchange founders go,
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Gerald actually had a
fairly public presence
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presenting the image of a trustworthy
businessman, of a trustworthy entrepreneur.
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And he was, you know,
speaking our language.
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[Man 1] Today we are
joined by Gerry cotten,
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00:07:01,188 --> 00:07:02,721
the director of bitcoin co-op,
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00:07:02,723 --> 00:07:04,790
the founder of quadrigacx.Com.
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[Man 2] And let
me paint the picture.
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Mr. Cotten looked
probably exactly
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what you think an Internet
genius would look like.
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A young attractive man.
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[Man 1] I was doing some research
'cause I knew you were coming this week.
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To be honest, I got more
confused doing the research.
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[Laughing]
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00:07:19,372 --> 00:07:22,040
[Gerald] With bitcoin, so it's just
a string of numbers and letters
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sending a payment to another
string of numbers and letters.
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When I send the
transaction, it's recognized
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00:07:26,747 --> 00:07:29,047
by a bunch of other
peers in the network.
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And then it's publicly
recorded into the public ledger
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which is called
the "blockchain."
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See, that's the cool part about
bitcoin, there's a public ledger.
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So you can actually
see all transactions
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- that happen in the bitcoin network.
- [Man 1] Ever? Really?
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[Gerald] Ever. Yeah. So it
essentially removes the need
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00:07:45,065 --> 00:07:47,566
for a central authority.
It's like the bank.
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00:07:47,568 --> 00:07:49,634
It's interesting that
this all kind of came out
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00:07:49,636 --> 00:07:52,504
in the sort of aftermath of
the global financial crisis.
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00:07:54,041 --> 00:07:56,708
That crisis made a lot
of people stop and go,
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00:07:56,710 --> 00:07:59,211
"well, why are we trusting
these financial institutions?
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00:07:59,213 --> 00:08:00,846
Why are we trusting
these banks?"
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00:08:00,848 --> 00:08:02,848
[Gerald] There's no
need for a central authority
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00:08:02,850 --> 00:08:04,449
because everyone
is a central authority.
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00:08:04,451 --> 00:08:05,884
[Man 1] Oh, right.
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00:08:05,886 --> 00:08:07,953
[Gerald] It's the beauty of it.
Then you get rid of the fees
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00:08:07,955 --> 00:08:11,156
- and a lot of the boarders and things like that.
- [Man 1] Right.
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00:08:11,158 --> 00:08:14,326
[Man 2] Well, how does
Joe schmo get involved?
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00:08:14,328 --> 00:08:17,596
[Gerald] Well, the first thing I
recommend doing is visiting bitcoin co-op.
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00:08:17,598 --> 00:08:23,001
[Upbeat music playing]
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00:08:23,003 --> 00:08:24,703
You can find a ton
of information there.
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00:08:24,705 --> 00:08:27,105
Basically discussions
about bitcoin
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00:08:27,107 --> 00:08:28,907
and what's going on in
the industry and so forth.
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00:08:28,909 --> 00:08:33,545
This is the central. The
door is magnet locked.
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00:08:46,793 --> 00:08:50,729
We first got the place, uh, as a
hang out for the crypto community.
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00:08:50,731 --> 00:08:55,534
Bitcoin co-op. That's, uh, and
we did all the outreach stuff.
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00:08:57,504 --> 00:09:01,306
Uh, our hall of
shame. Failed moneys.
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00:09:02,109 --> 00:09:04,776
This is a, I don't
wanna say central hub,
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00:09:04,778 --> 00:09:07,345
that sounds oxymoronic
or something.
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00:09:09,783 --> 00:09:13,084
Quadriga, those guys,
they came to the co-op
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00:09:13,086 --> 00:09:16,087
offering basically to
fund our outreach events.
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00:09:16,089 --> 00:09:17,789
Like, we got a
table at car free day,
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00:09:17,791 --> 00:09:19,591
we gave away
free coins to people.
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00:09:19,593 --> 00:09:23,828
They got a lot of publicity
for their associations with us.
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00:09:23,830 --> 00:09:26,998
[Gerald] Every Monday night, we
actually have our bitcoin co-op meeting.
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00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,334
So we've had times
when 50 people show up.
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00:09:29,336 --> 00:09:30,635
[Man 1] Oh, yeah.
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00:09:30,637 --> 00:09:33,538
[Gerald] And everyone's
just interested in bitcoin.
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00:09:33,540 --> 00:09:35,907
[Alex] I get to the meetup
early and Mike would be there.
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00:09:35,909 --> 00:09:40,045
He'd walk me through trading
concepts, and he just did this
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00:09:40,047 --> 00:09:44,549
and the same way I get excited about
bitcoin, he got excited about trading.
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00:09:44,551 --> 00:09:47,018
He had money, and he
was a confirmed good trader.
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00:09:47,020 --> 00:09:50,121
You can look at him posting
his public positions early on
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00:09:50,123 --> 00:09:52,223
and making some
really good calls.
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00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:56,261
He was really
nice, but so is Gerry.
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00:09:56,263 --> 00:09:59,731
Gerry was really nice too.
Always smiling, always happy.
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00:09:59,733 --> 00:10:02,100
Pull that up to there.
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00:10:02,102 --> 00:10:03,868
He helped my kids
buy bitcoin from an atm,
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00:10:03,870 --> 00:10:06,204
there's still a video
on YouTube of that.
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00:10:06,206 --> 00:10:08,473
Okay, now click "send bitcoins."
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00:10:10,577 --> 00:10:13,044
[Alex] Yeah, he
was a pilot for fun.
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00:10:15,082 --> 00:10:17,949
And he was really
just super friendly.
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00:10:25,659 --> 00:10:27,592
[Amber] In many
ways Toronto bitcoiners
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00:10:27,594 --> 00:10:30,962
are a pretty small, um,
tight knit community.
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00:10:31,999 --> 00:10:34,866
I'm the founder and
ceo at outlier solutions
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00:10:34,868 --> 00:10:38,036
we're an anti-money laundering
compliance consultant firm.
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00:10:38,038 --> 00:10:41,439
So we spent most of our time
trying to keep people out of trouble.
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00:10:43,043 --> 00:10:45,043
I started going to meet ups.
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00:10:45,045 --> 00:10:49,547
That was where I first learned about
quadriga and where I first met Gerry.
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00:10:50,384 --> 00:10:52,250
He was a really likeable guy.
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00:10:53,053 --> 00:10:54,986
Cool. It works.
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00:10:54,988 --> 00:10:57,355
He was a really bright
guy, he was really funny.
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00:11:00,761 --> 00:11:03,194
[Gerald] One of the best parts
about Canada's new money
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00:11:03,196 --> 00:11:06,231
is that it's fully
waterproof. Check it out.
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00:11:07,634 --> 00:11:09,934
[Amber] I was a person
who had strong suspicions
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00:11:09,936 --> 00:11:13,271
and I didn't come out and say
that publicly back in the day.
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00:11:15,242 --> 00:11:16,708
And I think that
there are a lot of folks
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00:11:16,710 --> 00:11:20,545
in the community that
are in the same boat,
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00:11:20,547 --> 00:11:24,015
where we had a lot of reservations
in terms of quadriga generally,
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00:11:24,017 --> 00:11:26,551
but we liked Gerry and we
didn't wanna see them fail
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00:11:26,553 --> 00:11:28,386
and we didn't
call it out publicly.
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00:11:28,388 --> 00:11:32,290
[Laughing]
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00:11:38,699 --> 00:11:44,769
[Amy] In 2015, the two other major
exchanges in Canada went out of business.
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00:11:44,771 --> 00:11:49,040
And that made quadrigacx the
main game in town, you know?
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00:11:49,042 --> 00:11:52,343
That was, they were the
big exchange at the time.
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00:11:52,345 --> 00:11:56,081
What happened to the former
largest bitcoin exchange?
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00:11:56,083 --> 00:12:00,318
Um, they just cited a variety of
reasons. Banking troubles, legal.
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00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,987
We'll probably find out a lot more
about them in the coming days,
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00:12:02,989 --> 00:12:05,290
but as a result of
them shutting down,
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00:12:05,292 --> 00:12:06,891
- it's been great for me.
- [Man] Yes.
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00:12:06,893 --> 00:12:08,960
[Laughing]
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00:12:11,198 --> 00:12:13,164
[Michael] It's been a
very, very busy time
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00:12:13,166 --> 00:12:14,098
and a very exciting time for us.
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00:12:14,100 --> 00:12:15,533
Our volume has more than doubled
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00:12:15,535 --> 00:12:17,902
since they announced
closure of vortex.
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00:12:17,904 --> 00:12:21,539
[Man] Well, we think you
should buy a really big boat too.
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00:12:24,211 --> 00:12:25,710
I think he'll get that
before we get a boat.
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00:12:25,712 --> 00:12:28,313
[Laughing]
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00:12:28,315 --> 00:12:31,349
We have announced that
quadrigacx will be going public.
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00:12:33,353 --> 00:12:34,219
I know.
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00:12:34,221 --> 00:12:37,756
[Clapping]
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00:12:37,758 --> 00:12:40,859
In 2015, they start,
you know, promoting it
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00:12:40,861 --> 00:12:44,963
as the soon to be first publicly
traded cryptocurrency exchange.
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00:12:44,965 --> 00:12:46,664
Um, and at the time I
thought, well, you know,
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00:12:46,666 --> 00:12:49,934
"if they go public, that'll
be a pretty big story."
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00:12:49,936 --> 00:12:52,771
We have some plans that
I'm itching to tell you about,
201
00:12:52,773 --> 00:12:54,139
but there are amazing
press releases
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00:12:54,141 --> 00:12:55,940
and I've been told to
shut up about them.
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00:12:55,942 --> 00:12:58,409
Michael patryn, he
was kind of instrumental
204
00:12:58,411 --> 00:13:01,012
to this push to take
quadriga public.
205
00:13:03,550 --> 00:13:08,853
And then the effort to take
quadriga public ultimately fails.
206
00:13:08,855 --> 00:13:12,357
Patryn says that him and
Gerry have a big falling out.
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00:13:14,261 --> 00:13:16,594
His involvement in
the company ended
208
00:13:16,596 --> 00:13:17,962
and he stopped knowing anything
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00:13:17,964 --> 00:13:20,365
about the day-to-day
operations of quadriga.
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00:13:21,568 --> 00:13:23,835
[Ryan] It does
seem as though Mike
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00:13:23,837 --> 00:13:26,905
had ceased involvement in 2016.
212
00:13:26,907 --> 00:13:30,175
It seems that way.
Emphasis on "seems."
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00:13:57,904 --> 00:14:05,076
After that time, cotten operated
quadrigacx as a one-man band.
214
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,014
[Ryan] Maybe he didn't
want to lose control.
215
00:14:10,016 --> 00:14:15,053
Maybe he kinda liked having the
situation where he had total autonomy
216
00:14:15,055 --> 00:14:19,090
over this exchange
and just so much power.
217
00:14:25,732 --> 00:14:28,700
People got into bitcoin
because they liked the idea
218
00:14:28,702 --> 00:14:32,470
of getting rich for free.
Magical Internet money.
219
00:14:33,473 --> 00:14:35,273
I'm a cryptocurrency journalist
220
00:14:35,275 --> 00:14:38,676
and the author of the book
attack of the 50 foot blockchain.
221
00:14:38,678 --> 00:14:41,613
This came out in July, 2017,
222
00:14:41,615 --> 00:14:46,050
just as the big cryptocurrency
bubble was on its upswing.
223
00:14:49,623 --> 00:14:52,924
I started putting a few
thousand dollars in bitcoin
224
00:14:52,926 --> 00:14:55,927
and then, few months later it
went from $1,000 to $2,000.
225
00:14:55,929 --> 00:14:59,564
I was like, "wow, I
made 100% of my return."
226
00:15:01,101 --> 00:15:05,203
So bitcoin, the software is
just an open source software,
227
00:15:05,205 --> 00:15:08,573
anyone can copy it and twiddle
it a bit and they've got a new coin.
228
00:15:12,579 --> 00:15:17,949
[Taylor] The bubble of 2017, that
bubble was people pretty much just
229
00:15:17,951 --> 00:15:20,218
trading between the
different crypto currencies
230
00:15:20,220 --> 00:15:22,287
and making a lot
of money doing it.
231
00:15:22,989 --> 00:15:25,290
Like a lot of money doing it.
232
00:15:25,292 --> 00:15:27,825
♪ Bitcoin, ripple, ethereum ♪
233
00:15:27,827 --> 00:15:29,961
♪ got me investing
in each of them ♪
234
00:15:29,963 --> 00:15:32,230
♪ bitcoin, ripple, ethereum ♪
235
00:15:32,232 --> 00:15:34,766
♪ I've got that crypto
making me millions ♪
236
00:15:34,768 --> 00:15:37,969
I turned $350 into $12,000.
237
00:15:37,971 --> 00:15:40,171
[Reporter] He became
a millionaire at 24.
238
00:15:43,076 --> 00:15:44,876
You absolutely can
make a lot of money.
239
00:15:44,878 --> 00:15:48,112
The dizzying ascent
continued today.
240
00:15:48,114 --> 00:15:52,884
It hit a peak in December,
mid-December where it was nearly $20,000.
241
00:15:52,886 --> 00:15:55,119
♪ Bitcoin, ripple, ethereum ♪
242
00:15:55,121 --> 00:15:59,857
In 2017, about
over a billion dollars
243
00:15:59,859 --> 00:16:02,327
in transactions went
through the exchange.
244
00:16:03,897 --> 00:16:07,165
There's so much money
coming on to quadriga now.
245
00:16:07,167 --> 00:16:11,970
All of a sudden he's got this windfall
of hundreds of millions of dollars.
246
00:16:15,608 --> 00:16:20,712
The other key player
is Jennifer robertson.
247
00:16:20,714 --> 00:16:25,616
That is Gerald cotten's
girlfriend, ultimately, his wife.
248
00:16:25,618 --> 00:16:30,989
I knew that he was engaged, but he
was very private and very quiet about that.
249
00:16:30,991 --> 00:16:32,957
People who thought that
they knew him quite well
250
00:16:32,959 --> 00:16:36,794
said that she sort of came out of the
woodwork. They didn't know who she was.
251
00:16:36,796 --> 00:16:37,829
We know that she
changed her name,
252
00:16:37,831 --> 00:16:40,698
which makes her
quite mysterious.
253
00:16:40,700 --> 00:16:44,969
She was Jennifer Griffith and
now she's Jennifer robertson.
254
00:16:44,971 --> 00:16:47,438
There were also these rumors.
255
00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:51,342
At one time she seems to have
used the name Jennifer forgeron.
256
00:16:52,679 --> 00:16:54,545
She didn't become
Jennifer cotten.
257
00:17:47,967 --> 00:17:53,938
We know very little about
Gerald's wife. Very, very little.
258
00:17:53,940 --> 00:17:57,241
We do know that Gerald was
living a very lavish lifestyle,
259
00:17:57,243 --> 00:17:59,010
which included a lot of travel,
260
00:17:59,012 --> 00:18:01,446
the purchasing of
at least one plane...
261
00:18:02,816 --> 00:18:05,483
Jen and Gerry
lived a life of luxury.
262
00:18:06,853 --> 00:18:09,987
He had this 51 foot sailboat.
263
00:18:11,558 --> 00:18:14,459
We know that they had all
of these properties together.
264
00:18:15,662 --> 00:18:17,695
All of these
wonderful vacations,
265
00:18:17,697 --> 00:18:21,032
staying in these
fancy looking hotels.
266
00:18:23,870 --> 00:18:26,971
Mostly when we corresponded
it was electronically,
267
00:18:26,973 --> 00:18:29,307
and he was usually
traveling somewhere.
268
00:18:30,643 --> 00:18:33,111
So I just got the sense
that he was travelling
269
00:18:33,113 --> 00:18:36,781
and enjoying the "work from
wherever you are" mentality.
270
00:18:36,783 --> 00:18:39,050
But definitely there
were also problems there.
271
00:18:39,052 --> 00:18:42,019
It's late 2017, early 2018...
272
00:18:42,021 --> 00:18:43,721
And the price of
bitcoin now is falling.
273
00:18:43,723 --> 00:18:46,524
The cryptocurrency
has gone from hitting
274
00:18:46,526 --> 00:18:50,294
a new record price
yesterday to nose diving today.
275
00:18:54,467 --> 00:18:56,134
[Amy] You know, there's a
lot of trades on the exchange.
276
00:18:56,136 --> 00:18:59,003
The platform can't keep
up with the business.
277
00:19:08,915 --> 00:19:12,016
And then they start to run
into some real problems.
278
00:19:12,785 --> 00:19:13,918
[Alexandra] There is this theory
279
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:15,553
that the company's
financial troubles
280
00:19:15,555 --> 00:19:17,955
started with this
ethereum incident.
281
00:19:17,957 --> 00:19:20,858
In 2017, the company
came out and said
282
00:19:20,860 --> 00:19:22,994
there was some
sort of technical glitch
283
00:19:22,996 --> 00:19:25,196
that caused them to
lose a bunch of ether.
284
00:19:28,101 --> 00:19:31,068
[Ryan] So this money was
effectively sent into a black hole.
285
00:19:31,070 --> 00:19:33,738
You know, it went
undetected for a very long time.
286
00:19:33,740 --> 00:19:35,540
[Taylor] I was part
of a Skype group
287
00:19:35,542 --> 00:19:38,943
that when the quadriga
team discovered
288
00:19:38,945 --> 00:19:41,946
they accidentally locked up $14
million on the ether blockchain,
289
00:19:41,948 --> 00:19:43,714
that Skype group is sort
of where they posted it
290
00:19:43,716 --> 00:19:45,115
to try to figure out
what was going on.
291
00:19:45,117 --> 00:19:48,719
And so this ether just sits
in this contract to this day.
292
00:19:48,721 --> 00:19:51,923
- No one can access it.
- It's just like a, it's like a contract bug.
293
00:19:51,925 --> 00:19:56,027
Yeah, it was just the contract
was not, it was not a smart contract.
294
00:19:58,565 --> 00:20:00,231
There's no way that
you could recover for this
295
00:20:00,233 --> 00:20:03,000
unless you expected
the price of ether
296
00:20:03,002 --> 00:20:06,037
to go 4x in two months,
which nobody did.
297
00:20:08,675 --> 00:20:10,775
[Amy] So, they lose 14 million.
298
00:20:10,777 --> 00:20:14,545
The bigger problem is that cibc,
which is a big bank in Canada,
299
00:20:14,547 --> 00:20:17,949
they essentially freeze
about $25 million.
300
00:20:17,951 --> 00:20:20,117
[Alexandra] It's not
uncommon in the crypto world
301
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:22,053
for crypto companies to
have issues getting banking.
302
00:20:22,055 --> 00:20:24,055
The banks are concerned
about money laundering,
303
00:20:24,057 --> 00:20:25,790
they don't necessarily
understand blockchain,
304
00:20:25,792 --> 00:20:27,925
they don't know how
to trace transactions.
305
00:20:27,927 --> 00:20:29,527
We've all heard of
the issues where banks
306
00:20:29,529 --> 00:20:30,895
are closing down banks accounts
307
00:20:30,897 --> 00:20:33,998
for different bitcoin
exchanges. It's a huge mess.
308
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,968
[Amy] So quadriga can't
get any type of banking.
309
00:20:36,970 --> 00:20:39,904
If you would send
money to quadriga,
310
00:20:39,906 --> 00:20:43,574
you would send it to one of their
third party payment processors.
311
00:20:45,044 --> 00:20:46,744
So what a third party
payment processor is,
312
00:20:46,746 --> 00:20:48,546
essentially it's like
a shell company.
313
00:20:54,887 --> 00:20:57,455
And those sort of funnel money
314
00:20:57,457 --> 00:21:00,091
through this web of
accounts or shell companies.
315
00:21:00,093 --> 00:21:06,030
The cibc funds, they're frozen 'cause they
didn't know the source of the accounts.
316
00:21:06,032 --> 00:21:08,566
[Andrew] It was very
annoying for customers.
317
00:21:08,568 --> 00:21:11,135
They'd be like, "hey, give
quadriga back their money, jerk.
318
00:21:11,137 --> 00:21:14,038
I'm trying to withdraw
my money, stupid bank."
319
00:21:15,008 --> 00:21:17,475
[Amber] I did see the
complaints escalating.
320
00:21:19,078 --> 00:21:22,046
Because businesses in
the cryptocurrency world
321
00:21:22,048 --> 00:21:24,048
have trouble maintaining
a bank account,
322
00:21:24,050 --> 00:21:27,084
the idea that, okay, so your
transaction might be delayed,
323
00:21:27,086 --> 00:21:30,221
your withdrawal might be
delayed, is not that unusual.
324
00:21:30,223 --> 00:21:32,089
[Tong] They posted
Facebook updates every day.
325
00:21:32,091 --> 00:21:33,758
Almost every day
during this time
326
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:35,626
and even on Reddit
people were always saying,
327
00:21:35,628 --> 00:21:37,895
"oh, people always
got their money."
328
00:21:37,897 --> 00:21:40,064
It just took a while, but
no one ever, you know,
329
00:21:40,066 --> 00:21:42,533
didn't receive their
money at that time.
330
00:21:42,535 --> 00:21:46,170
This is October 2018.
So I believed them.
331
00:21:48,141 --> 00:21:51,475
[Amy] January 14th, 2019.
332
00:21:56,482 --> 00:21:59,283
I remember that
morning quite clearly.
333
00:22:09,862 --> 00:22:14,265
There was this notice from quadriga
that Gerald cotten died suddenly.
334
00:22:35,188 --> 00:22:36,954
[Amber] I was really shocked.
335
00:22:37,323 --> 00:22:38,522
I was really sad.
336
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:42,493
I really liked him.
337
00:22:45,832 --> 00:22:48,032
[Nathan] I'd seen the headlines.
338
00:22:48,034 --> 00:22:50,801
Reddit was going crazy,
there were questions all over
339
00:22:50,803 --> 00:22:52,203
and we didn't really
know anything at that point.
340
00:22:52,205 --> 00:22:55,072
We knew that he
had been in India.
341
00:22:55,975 --> 00:22:57,308
[Amy] They had
apparently gone to India
342
00:22:57,310 --> 00:23:00,344
because, to celebrate
their honeymoon, right?
343
00:23:00,346 --> 00:23:01,779
And to open this orphanage.
344
00:23:01,781 --> 00:23:03,080
[Alexandra] After
talking to people,
345
00:23:03,082 --> 00:23:06,050
we discovered that he
had had digestive issues
346
00:23:06,052 --> 00:23:08,719
and specifically
crohn's for some time.
347
00:23:08,721 --> 00:23:11,188
It's kind of rare these days
for people to die of crohn's.
348
00:23:11,190 --> 00:23:13,657
He has this horrible
episode that starts
349
00:23:13,659 --> 00:23:15,626
with what just looks
like traveler's diarrhea
350
00:23:15,628 --> 00:23:19,029
and then ends in three
cardiac arrests and his death.
351
00:23:21,868 --> 00:23:28,105
And apparently the only person by his side
continuously until Gerry died was Jennifer.
352
00:23:28,107 --> 00:23:33,110
[Amy] Rather than letting people know
right away that Gerald cotten had died,
353
00:23:33,112 --> 00:23:35,112
she withheld that information.
354
00:23:37,550 --> 00:23:39,917
They've been operating
for a full month after he died.
355
00:23:39,919 --> 00:23:42,086
Yeah, it doesn't... It doesn't
make a lot of sense, right?
356
00:23:42,088 --> 00:23:45,022
Like how do you...
How do you square that?
357
00:23:45,024 --> 00:23:46,724
[Amy] It sort of
brings up the question,
358
00:23:46,726 --> 00:23:49,727
what role did Jennifer robertson
play in all this, you know?
359
00:23:49,729 --> 00:23:53,531
I mean there's just question
after question after question.
360
00:23:53,533 --> 00:23:56,066
[Amy] Jennifer robertson
then became at that point
361
00:23:56,068 --> 00:23:59,136
the largest
shareholder in quadriga.
362
00:24:15,221 --> 00:24:19,390
So then the sort of panic
about withdrawals escalates.
363
00:24:19,992 --> 00:24:23,194
They put in limits.
$50,000 per month.
364
00:24:23,196 --> 00:24:25,563
People were trying to get their
money out but they couldn't.
365
00:24:26,766 --> 00:24:29,934
It was obvious
things were really bad.
366
00:24:29,936 --> 00:24:32,069
[Alexandra] Suddenly
the site goes down.
367
00:24:38,544 --> 00:24:42,213
My stomach turned.
I knew what it meant.
368
00:24:42,215 --> 00:24:44,148
No one ever sees that
in the exchange site
369
00:24:44,150 --> 00:24:46,817
and doesn't think, "is
all my money gone?"
370
00:24:46,819 --> 00:24:49,720
[Amy] That was
quite a big red flag.
371
00:24:49,722 --> 00:24:52,356
[Tong] I never stopped
seeing red for months now.
372
00:24:54,227 --> 00:24:56,927
And then I believe it
was a day or two after that
373
00:24:56,929 --> 00:24:58,529
there was a notice
on the website
374
00:24:58,531 --> 00:25:03,200
that says quadriga has
filed for creditor protection.
375
00:25:03,202 --> 00:25:07,238
My co-writer Joe castaldo got
the filing from the courthouse,
376
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:11,575
and he says, "oh, my god!
There's $180 million of crypto
377
00:25:11,577 --> 00:25:15,913
that seems to be missing
and there's $250 million total
378
00:25:15,915 --> 00:25:18,782
that is owed to people
and they can't get any of it."
379
00:25:18,784 --> 00:25:21,452
And at that point we knew we had
380
00:25:21,454 --> 00:25:23,454
a pretty big story on our hands.
381
00:25:31,197 --> 00:25:34,698
[Amy] That moment when that notice
appeared on the quadriga website,
382
00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:38,369
that was, that was
sort of like, "wow."
383
00:25:42,108 --> 00:25:45,075
This is when people really
realized what happened.
384
00:25:45,177 --> 00:25:47,945
[Ryan] Panic. Worry.
385
00:25:47,947 --> 00:25:51,749
Yeah, just a cocktail of,
uh, negative emotions.
386
00:25:51,751 --> 00:25:56,020
Yeah, I just went like, "wow, this
really happened to me. Unbelievable."
387
00:26:01,060 --> 00:26:04,094
[Alexandra] We were
pulling 18-hour days.
388
00:26:04,096 --> 00:26:06,363
I would go to sleep
thinking about quadriga,
389
00:26:06,365 --> 00:26:09,833
and I would wake up
thinking about quadriga.
390
00:26:09,835 --> 00:26:14,905
First we started with the actual
contents of the filings, ccaa filing.
391
00:26:14,907 --> 00:26:16,941
'Cause there was a lot
of information in there.
392
00:26:16,943 --> 00:26:18,842
You know, all the
affidavits were in there
393
00:26:18,844 --> 00:26:22,446
of, you know, Jen talking about
how the business was being run.
394
00:26:23,616 --> 00:26:25,149
She said that she
was not really...
395
00:26:25,151 --> 00:26:27,685
That she was not at all involved
in the company operations.
396
00:26:27,687 --> 00:26:31,655
But we do know that Jennifer
had a quadriga e-mail address.
397
00:26:31,657 --> 00:26:35,726
We know that Jennifer ran a
company called robertson nova
398
00:26:35,728 --> 00:26:39,496
that was processing
payments on behalf of quadriga.
399
00:26:43,836 --> 00:26:45,869
[Joe] I remember
reading the court filings
400
00:26:45,871 --> 00:26:49,340
like it was clear that quadriga
was barely a real company.
401
00:26:49,342 --> 00:26:52,943
It was just Gerry
with his computer.
402
00:26:52,945 --> 00:26:56,780
[Amber] He was the sole
director, so this is one person,
403
00:26:56,782 --> 00:26:58,882
one young man who had access
404
00:26:58,884 --> 00:27:02,953
to hundreds of millions
of dollars' worth of funds.
405
00:27:04,090 --> 00:27:06,690
It really seems
that Gerry had kept
406
00:27:06,692 --> 00:27:08,859
the other employees in the dark.
407
00:27:08,861 --> 00:27:11,095
There was only seven
contractors, I believe.
408
00:27:11,097 --> 00:27:13,063
There were some chat
logs that were leaked
409
00:27:13,065 --> 00:27:16,934
by Aaron Matthews
with the contractors.
410
00:27:18,771 --> 00:27:20,170
[Alexandra] According
to these chat logs,
411
00:27:20,172 --> 00:27:23,540
Gerry, he basically just took
over running the company himself.
412
00:27:26,145 --> 00:27:27,811
[Mitch] If you
wanted to withdraw,
413
00:27:27,813 --> 00:27:29,813
Aaron would send
a request to Gerry
414
00:27:29,815 --> 00:27:32,149
and then Gerry would
honor that request manually.
415
00:27:32,151 --> 00:27:35,019
He was the only one
that actually controlled
416
00:27:35,021 --> 00:27:37,187
like the crypto,
the cold wallets.
417
00:27:38,124 --> 00:27:39,923
Your cold wallet,
that'd be your bank vault
418
00:27:39,925 --> 00:27:42,960
that has 100
million bucks in it.
419
00:27:42,962 --> 00:27:47,798
And then the hot wallet would be like
the teller who has like 10 grand cash.
420
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,136
So if you Rob the teller, you're
not getting all that's in the bank vault.
421
00:27:52,138 --> 00:27:55,305
If you lose the keys of the bank
vault, you've lost the gold bars.
422
00:27:55,808 --> 00:27:56,873
This is exactly how it works.
423
00:27:56,875 --> 00:28:00,611
If you lose that key,
your coin's gone.
424
00:28:00,613 --> 00:28:05,616
[Mitch] It's not normal for an exchange
owner to be the only key holder.
425
00:28:05,618 --> 00:28:09,787
I was very surprised
to read about the keys.
426
00:28:09,789 --> 00:28:16,560
So the idea that no one else had access
to any backups in any meaningful way.
427
00:28:16,562 --> 00:28:20,864
He was so diligent, and he
was so paranoid in so many ways
428
00:28:20,866 --> 00:28:23,333
that there would've been
something somewhere.
429
00:28:27,006 --> 00:28:29,873
He paid lip service
to having cold wallets
430
00:28:29,875 --> 00:28:33,911
spread in different, uh,
safety deposit boxes.
431
00:28:33,913 --> 00:28:36,113
[Gerald] We're obviously
holding a bunch of bitcoin.
432
00:28:36,115 --> 00:28:38,916
So what we do is we
actually store them offline
433
00:28:38,918 --> 00:28:42,720
in paper wallets in our
bank vault, in a deposit box,
434
00:28:42,722 --> 00:28:45,389
because that's the best
way to keep the coin secure.
435
00:28:47,059 --> 00:28:49,159
[Ryan] And Gerald
makes reference
436
00:28:49,161 --> 00:28:53,931
to a safe that he had bolted
to the rafters of his attic.
437
00:28:53,933 --> 00:28:56,900
When the safe was investigated,
438
00:28:56,902 --> 00:29:00,070
all that was found
were four, four holes.
439
00:29:02,241 --> 00:29:04,208
So where's the safe?
440
00:29:07,580 --> 00:29:08,979
How the hell can
you be in this space
441
00:29:08,981 --> 00:29:10,748
and be controlling so much money
442
00:29:10,750 --> 00:29:14,051
and not have any
sort of backup plan.
443
00:29:14,787 --> 00:29:18,422
Was there a contingency
plan that failed?
444
00:29:18,424 --> 00:29:24,561
Was there perhaps some plan such
as a dead man switch, for example?
445
00:29:24,563 --> 00:29:30,000
[Ryan] Dead man switch is a
mechanism a coder could set up.
446
00:29:30,002 --> 00:29:33,270
[Mitch] Say, if Gerry didn't
put a password in for 30 days,
447
00:29:33,272 --> 00:29:34,705
then, you know, his private keys
448
00:29:34,707 --> 00:29:37,975
would be sent to someone
who can take care of it.
449
00:29:37,977 --> 00:29:41,478
And if there was no plan, why
was there no plan? Was it hubris?
450
00:29:44,984 --> 00:29:46,750
Was that Gerry thinking
that he was invincible?
451
00:29:46,752 --> 00:29:48,819
That nothing could
happen to him?
452
00:29:48,821 --> 00:29:52,089
Was it because Gerry didn't
feel like he could trust anyone?
453
00:30:01,267 --> 00:30:06,103
What happened, Gerry?
Where's the money?
454
00:30:12,678 --> 00:30:14,178
I certainly have
a lot of empathy
455
00:30:14,180 --> 00:30:17,514
for people who lost
money in quadriga.
456
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:39,503
[Tong] Actually, I think this is,
uh, we can do a left turn here.
457
00:30:41,974 --> 00:30:45,976
It was just the shock of how
could my timing be this bad?
458
00:30:45,978 --> 00:30:48,946
If I had sold my
house any time else
459
00:30:48,948 --> 00:30:51,014
this wouldn't have
happened to me.
460
00:30:51,016 --> 00:30:55,152
Yeah, I pretty much ended up, uh,
losing my life's savings because of it.
461
00:30:55,821 --> 00:30:59,723
I lost about $400,000
in quadrigacx, right?
462
00:30:59,725 --> 00:31:03,961
So I posted this video, it's a very candid
video because I was very frustrated.
463
00:31:03,963 --> 00:31:07,898
As humans often do we
get greedy and we get selfish
464
00:31:07,900 --> 00:31:10,033
and I was jealous of my friends
for making so much money,
465
00:31:10,035 --> 00:31:13,070
so, um, I kinda took a big risk.
466
00:31:13,072 --> 00:31:17,608
I actually took out three loans
from the bank and I put it all in crypto,
467
00:31:17,610 --> 00:31:20,210
which as you know,
um, crypto crashed.
468
00:31:24,149 --> 00:31:26,450
And I put myself into
an even deeper hole.
469
00:31:28,254 --> 00:31:31,121
And the only way
for me to dig myself
470
00:31:31,123 --> 00:31:33,323
out of that hole is
to sell my apartment.
471
00:31:33,626 --> 00:31:35,091
So that's what I did.
472
00:31:35,093 --> 00:31:38,362
Yeah, my apartment's pretty
much right at the end of this street.
473
00:31:43,903 --> 00:31:46,503
I was in the west one,
which is this one right here.
474
00:31:46,505 --> 00:31:48,138
Fifth floor.
475
00:31:50,009 --> 00:31:53,010
I sold it at the time when I also
wanted to move back to Canada.
476
00:31:53,012 --> 00:31:55,779
I wanted to quit my job,
but it's what came after,
477
00:31:55,781 --> 00:31:58,415
you know, that would
kind of really shook me.
478
00:32:05,658 --> 00:32:07,024
I was looking for
an alternate way
479
00:32:07,026 --> 00:32:08,825
to move my money
from us to Canada
480
00:32:08,827 --> 00:32:10,527
and why didn't I go
through the bank?
481
00:32:10,529 --> 00:32:13,297
Well, the banks usually
charges a 1 or 2% commission,
482
00:32:13,299 --> 00:32:17,234
but quadrigacx had a
10% premium at the time.
483
00:32:18,237 --> 00:32:21,571
[Announcer] Be sure
to visit quadrigacx.Com.
484
00:32:21,573 --> 00:32:23,874
Canada's best bitcoin exchange.
485
00:32:23,876 --> 00:32:26,743
This is what I thought
cryptocurrency was invented to do
486
00:32:26,745 --> 00:32:29,813
as to easily move money
between, um, different places, right?
487
00:32:29,815 --> 00:32:31,782
[Announcer] Global
withdraw options
488
00:32:31,784 --> 00:32:36,086
including direct payments
to any visa card worldwide.
489
00:32:36,088 --> 00:32:39,790
Quadriga definitely
knew how to pull people in.
490
00:32:39,792 --> 00:32:41,959
[Announcer] You'll never
have trouble moving funds
491
00:32:41,961 --> 00:32:45,062
into and out of your
quadrigacx account.
492
00:32:45,064 --> 00:32:47,564
Canada's best bitcoin exchange.
493
00:32:57,042 --> 00:33:00,010
I was in... I was really
depressed, right?
494
00:33:02,281 --> 00:33:05,048
I was basically
gambling with my money.
495
00:33:06,952 --> 00:33:09,720
[Amber] The only investment
advice that I ever give anyone
496
00:33:09,722 --> 00:33:12,189
when it comes to
bitcoin, cryptocurrency,
497
00:33:12,191 --> 00:33:14,057
anything that's really high risk
498
00:33:14,059 --> 00:33:15,859
is think about all
of your money.
499
00:33:15,861 --> 00:33:18,829
Picture it just catching
fire and burning slowly
500
00:33:18,831 --> 00:33:21,865
and at the point
where you start to cry
501
00:33:21,867 --> 00:33:23,800
make sure that you're
putting less than that
502
00:33:23,802 --> 00:33:26,103
into something
that's super high risk.
503
00:33:32,845 --> 00:33:34,578
[Andrew] The most
important thing all viewers,
504
00:33:34,580 --> 00:33:36,013
anyone watching
this has to know,
505
00:33:36,015 --> 00:33:39,316
is note your keys,
note your coins,
506
00:33:39,318 --> 00:33:41,918
never leave all your
money on the exchange.
507
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,154
Where people run into
danger is where they try
508
00:33:44,156 --> 00:33:47,958
and turn their bitcoins into more
bitcoins by using their bitcoins.
509
00:33:56,101 --> 00:33:57,701
[Ryan] Having a background
on computer science
510
00:33:57,703 --> 00:34:01,004
I was able to appreciate crypto.
511
00:34:01,006 --> 00:34:05,008
I was fortunate enough
to discover it very early on.
512
00:34:06,745 --> 00:34:11,048
I had stored much of
my wealth in bitcoin.
513
00:34:12,084 --> 00:34:16,953
I wanted to take the
fortune I had generated,
514
00:34:16,955 --> 00:34:20,257
diversify it and move
on to other things.
515
00:34:20,259 --> 00:34:25,028
Because quadriga was the
biggest exchange in Canada
516
00:34:25,030 --> 00:34:30,000
and because the amount that I was
dealing with had grown quite large
517
00:34:30,002 --> 00:34:32,669
the only logical
place to pull it out
518
00:34:32,671 --> 00:34:35,605
of the ecosystem
was through quadriga.
519
00:34:35,607 --> 00:34:37,040
[Reporter] More than
100 thousand people
520
00:34:37,042 --> 00:34:39,009
found their money
appeared to have vanished
521
00:34:39,011 --> 00:34:42,012
and experts are skeptical
people will ever see
522
00:34:42,014 --> 00:34:44,114
a fraction of what they're owed.
523
00:34:44,116 --> 00:34:46,349
It's difficult to let it go.
524
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:49,820
And maybe even
it shouldn't be let go
525
00:34:49,822 --> 00:34:52,155
until we do have clear answers
526
00:34:52,157 --> 00:34:55,258
regarding whether or not
there's money still out there.
527
00:34:57,663 --> 00:35:02,666
I, uh, tried to rally
people on Reddit.
528
00:35:02,668 --> 00:35:05,168
You know, it wasn't long after
that we had a telegram group
529
00:35:05,170 --> 00:35:07,537
with, you know, new
people joining by the minute.
530
00:35:08,907 --> 00:35:12,042
[Tong] So we all kinda
flocked to the telegram group.
531
00:35:12,044 --> 00:35:13,877
At the beginning we
was just thinking about
532
00:35:13,879 --> 00:35:15,178
let's get ourselves
some lawyers,
533
00:35:15,180 --> 00:35:17,080
try to get some
of our money back
534
00:35:17,082 --> 00:35:19,382
and, uh, try to understand
what's going on.
535
00:35:29,128 --> 00:35:32,329
So then Joe had the bright
idea to go and track down the will.
536
00:35:34,166 --> 00:35:38,101
[Amy] In November, Gerald
writes his very detailed will.
537
00:35:38,103 --> 00:35:40,971
On December 9th,
he dies in India.
538
00:35:43,842 --> 00:35:46,009
The fact that he
had updated this will
539
00:35:46,011 --> 00:35:50,380
just two weeks before he
died, that was a real shocker.
540
00:35:50,382 --> 00:35:52,048
[Amy] And mind
you, this is 2018,
541
00:35:52,050 --> 00:35:54,484
so everything's falling
apart on the exchange.
542
00:35:54,486 --> 00:35:56,786
The problems with the
bank, people are complaining
543
00:35:56,788 --> 00:35:59,556
that they can't get their
money off the exchange.
544
00:35:59,558 --> 00:36:03,960
So, things are falling apart.
He writes a very detailed will.
545
00:36:04,663 --> 00:36:08,398
It's almost like he knew that
something was going to happen to him.
546
00:36:10,569 --> 00:36:14,371
The will was fascinating cause
we discovered all of these assets.
547
00:36:15,707 --> 00:36:21,878
[Joe] You know, 17 properties, a
yacht, a plane, a Lexus, a mini Cooper.
548
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:25,649
[Amy] Jennifer robertson is the
executer. When he dies mysteriously,
549
00:36:25,651 --> 00:36:29,486
she gets all the assets, right?
550
00:36:29,488 --> 00:36:31,354
[Alexandra] And to
us, one of our favorites,
551
00:36:31,356 --> 00:36:35,091
was that he has these two
chihuahuas named nitro and gully.
552
00:36:43,635 --> 00:36:45,135
He had left this sum of money.
553
00:36:45,137 --> 00:36:50,006
There's $100,000 trust for the
care of these two chihuahuas
554
00:36:50,008 --> 00:36:52,375
in the event that Jennifer
doesn't survive him.
555
00:36:55,914 --> 00:36:57,881
Nitro and gully.
556
00:36:57,883 --> 00:37:00,016
- [Joe] I think they're doing okay.
- [Alexandra] I do.
557
00:37:00,018 --> 00:37:03,920
Just how, like, meticulous
he was about laying out
558
00:37:03,922 --> 00:37:06,022
what was gonna happen
to his assets, even his dogs,
559
00:37:06,024 --> 00:37:10,060
like, after he died
and yet compare that
560
00:37:10,062 --> 00:37:13,463
to the mess that
quadriga was. It was crazy.
561
00:37:16,602 --> 00:37:18,802
[Reporter] The cryptocurrency
confusion is attracting
562
00:37:18,804 --> 00:37:21,538
a growing number of
lawyers and accountants
563
00:37:21,540 --> 00:37:23,707
suggesting they can sort it out.
564
00:37:23,709 --> 00:37:27,677
Ernst and young were
brought in to be the monitors
565
00:37:27,679 --> 00:37:32,082
on the ccaa protection, which
is the stage before bankruptcy.
566
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,660
[Reporter] Ernst and young,
the court appointed monitor
567
00:37:43,662 --> 00:37:49,165
says it has secured a total of 11
electronic devices used by Gerald cotten,
568
00:37:49,167 --> 00:37:52,902
and is working to gain access to
the assets that are still off limits.
569
00:37:52,904 --> 00:37:55,872
Plans are also underway
for a forensic review.
570
00:37:55,874 --> 00:38:01,945
An effort by crypto experts to figure out
how to find all those missing investments.
571
00:38:04,149 --> 00:38:06,750
[Alexandra] You've got
this firm from the sort
572
00:38:06,752 --> 00:38:08,818
of traditional mainstream
financial world.
573
00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:10,053
You know, they're
having to wrap their minds
574
00:38:10,055 --> 00:38:11,788
around this whole
new asset class.
575
00:38:11,790 --> 00:38:15,025
There's a lot of questions about
where all the cash was flowing,
576
00:38:15,027 --> 00:38:17,093
and this is why Ernst and young
577
00:38:17,095 --> 00:38:20,130
clearly got the high-powered
forensic accountants on it.
578
00:38:20,132 --> 00:38:22,332
Um, because they needed them.
579
00:38:23,635 --> 00:38:26,569
[Amy] The first two Ernst
and young reports came out.
580
00:38:26,571 --> 00:38:30,140
There were no company bank accounts,
there was no segregation of funds.
581
00:38:30,142 --> 00:38:33,043
Everything was sort of mixed
in together into a giant pool.
582
00:38:33,045 --> 00:38:34,978
As the accountants
go through everything,
583
00:38:34,980 --> 00:38:37,280
I mean, they had
a heck of a time.
584
00:38:38,950 --> 00:38:42,585
[Alexandra] There seems to
have been no accounting system.
585
00:38:42,587 --> 00:38:47,791
Maybe there is in this, you know, encrypted
laptop that nobody can get access to.
586
00:38:47,793 --> 00:38:51,161
How do you get in a position
where you're managing $200 million
587
00:38:51,163 --> 00:38:53,096
and you literally
don't have a single,
588
00:38:53,098 --> 00:38:57,667
like, balance sheet at
all? What? Like what?
589
00:38:57,669 --> 00:39:00,136
With bitcoin, it's all
in the public sphere.
590
00:39:00,138 --> 00:39:02,238
Anyone can check
it, anyone can verify it.
591
00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:05,909
If I say I own something,
Alex can prove it,
592
00:39:05,911 --> 00:39:07,544
Anthony can prove
it, anyone can prove it
593
00:39:07,546 --> 00:39:09,179
just by looking on the Internet.
594
00:39:09,181 --> 00:39:13,750
Their claim was that, was not
that the money was gone, right?
595
00:39:13,752 --> 00:39:16,419
Their claim was
that the private keys
596
00:39:16,421 --> 00:39:19,556
that protected the piles
of money were gone.
597
00:39:19,558 --> 00:39:23,927
Which meant that there should still be
piles of money somewhere on the blockchain.
598
00:39:23,929 --> 00:39:26,730
I literally just wanted
to answer the question
599
00:39:26,732 --> 00:39:30,934
of how much money
is in the ether wallets,
600
00:39:30,936 --> 00:39:35,171
what are the addresses and
that's how it started. [Laughing]
601
00:39:35,974 --> 00:39:37,540
That's how it started.
602
00:39:37,542 --> 00:39:41,311
[Tense music playing]
603
00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,087
[Taylor] I'm the founder
and ceo of mycrypto.
604
00:39:51,089 --> 00:39:55,225
Mycrypto is a non-custodial
wallet for cryptocurrency.
605
00:39:58,029 --> 00:40:01,865
Non-custodial means that
we don't hold your funds,
606
00:40:01,867 --> 00:40:05,568
but we basically allow people
to interact with the blockchain,
607
00:40:05,570 --> 00:40:07,937
access their funds,
send their funds around,
608
00:40:07,939 --> 00:40:09,539
but we don't actually hold them.
609
00:40:12,944 --> 00:40:15,578
So, my investigation,
once again,
610
00:40:15,580 --> 00:40:19,149
did not start as like a "let
me investigate quadriga."
611
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:22,819
Basically my plan
was like, you know,
612
00:40:22,821 --> 00:40:25,655
spend a couple of
hours, find the addresses,
613
00:40:25,657 --> 00:40:29,259
I'll post them on Reddit
and move on with my life.
614
00:40:31,797 --> 00:40:37,100
There are just so many
transactions, like 700,000 transactions.
615
00:40:37,102 --> 00:40:40,570
And so one trick
that I use is that
616
00:40:40,572 --> 00:40:44,574
it'll just automatically
color the addresses.
617
00:40:44,576 --> 00:40:46,743
The red addresses, the
one that we're analyzing,
618
00:40:46,745 --> 00:40:50,146
the blue is quadriga's
2016 address
619
00:40:50,148 --> 00:40:53,116
and then it'll change to
green and then purple.
620
00:40:54,619 --> 00:40:57,086
And then you can just
scroll through them,
621
00:40:57,088 --> 00:40:59,456
and you'll start to
notice patterns appear.
622
00:41:01,860 --> 00:41:03,793
When I found, like,
the first address
623
00:41:03,795 --> 00:41:06,963
I was like, "if I dump the
whole spreadsheet," right?
624
00:41:06,965 --> 00:41:10,834
"The whole ledger. If I grab
all the data and then I sort it,
625
00:41:10,836 --> 00:41:13,102
by, like, the highest
to the lowest,
626
00:41:13,104 --> 00:41:15,538
I should be able to see
where the money goes."
627
00:41:17,576 --> 00:41:19,542
Basically like
three weeks later...
628
00:41:21,112 --> 00:41:23,480
I still didn't know
where the money went.
629
00:41:25,150 --> 00:41:28,451
And then I did things like
combining all the addresses
630
00:41:28,453 --> 00:41:30,353
and then sorting by the amount,
631
00:41:30,355 --> 00:41:34,224
and I did things like separating
the outgoing transactions
632
00:41:34,226 --> 00:41:37,994
from the incoming ones, but at the
end of the day, there's no piles of money.
633
00:41:37,996 --> 00:41:39,562
Period.
634
00:41:41,733 --> 00:41:44,868
So you can find the private keys all
you want, there's still no piles of money,
635
00:41:44,870 --> 00:41:48,204
so, you know, what
the hell happened?
636
00:41:50,842 --> 00:41:51,908
[Nathan] What
happened to that money?
637
00:41:51,910 --> 00:41:53,710
And if it is in cryptocurrency,
638
00:41:53,712 --> 00:41:55,678
why is it proving
so elusive to find?
639
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:59,015
There is this paper
trail, this digital ledger
640
00:41:59,017 --> 00:42:03,119
of every single transaction that anyone
can access, but the identities are masked.
641
00:42:03,121 --> 00:42:05,989
So you can see the
address of a bitcoin wallet
642
00:42:05,991 --> 00:42:08,024
that moved money to
another bitcoin wallet,
643
00:42:08,026 --> 00:42:11,528
but you wouldn't necessarily
know who controls those wallets.
644
00:42:12,864 --> 00:42:16,566
[Amy] The court appointed
monitor and the ccaa process
645
00:42:17,702 --> 00:42:20,904
found six bitcoin wallets,
646
00:42:20,906 --> 00:42:25,441
um, that were all
emptied out by April 2018.
647
00:42:27,946 --> 00:42:30,280
Ui did an investigation
and said, "no,
648
00:42:30,282 --> 00:42:32,415
there's nothing more
in the cold wallets."
649
00:42:32,918 --> 00:42:34,350
Where is it then?
650
00:42:37,956 --> 00:42:39,222
[Taylor] Everything is all bull.
651
00:42:39,224 --> 00:42:41,190
The answers are out there.
652
00:42:44,996 --> 00:42:48,231
And you start looking at the
things and where the money moved,
653
00:42:48,233 --> 00:42:51,801
and the biggest money movements
that we saw was expected
654
00:42:51,803 --> 00:42:54,537
which is big chunks of
money moving between
655
00:42:54,539 --> 00:42:56,372
sort of these three
storage accounts
656
00:42:56,374 --> 00:43:00,476
that quadriga used
between, like, 2016 and 2018.
657
00:43:00,478 --> 00:43:03,446
But then you see, like,
some other addresses pop up.
658
00:43:04,883 --> 00:43:08,551
So, this is one of those
weird red addresses.
659
00:43:08,553 --> 00:43:11,955
It is an address that just
really consistently appears
660
00:43:11,957 --> 00:43:15,024
from the very
beginning of quadriga.
661
00:43:15,026 --> 00:43:18,094
There's these other accounts
that money was sent to.
662
00:43:18,096 --> 00:43:21,397
Maybe all the single
transactions were 100 ether.
663
00:43:21,399 --> 00:43:23,366
But there were
thousands of them.
664
00:43:25,904 --> 00:43:27,570
This is insane.
665
00:43:29,140 --> 00:43:31,908
When you look at the
ust sort of equivalents,
666
00:43:31,910 --> 00:43:35,278
you have this list of addresses
that have received $40 million,
667
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:39,115
$50 million, $100 million.
668
00:43:39,117 --> 00:43:42,685
And then the question is, "okay, so
who owns these addresses? Right?"
669
00:43:42,687 --> 00:43:45,521
Who the hell is quadriga
sending $100 million to?
670
00:43:47,926 --> 00:43:53,463
So, if we go to this specific
address, it's poloniex.
671
00:43:53,999 --> 00:43:56,432
So this is a poloniex address.
672
00:43:56,434 --> 00:44:00,937
Someone sent money to
their quadriga deposit address,
673
00:44:00,939 --> 00:44:04,207
and their money was then sent
to a poloniex deposit address
674
00:44:04,209 --> 00:44:07,143
immediately without
touching quadriga's hot wallet.
675
00:44:07,145 --> 00:44:10,079
Like, that's weird.
That's not normal.
676
00:44:10,081 --> 00:44:12,682
- That's pretty crazy.
- Right?
677
00:44:12,684 --> 00:44:18,721
Why would an exchange take
money that customers have deposited
678
00:44:18,723 --> 00:44:22,225
and send it to another exchange?
679
00:44:25,764 --> 00:44:30,133
The absolute most legitimate reason
that I could possibly think of was, like,
680
00:44:30,135 --> 00:44:34,671
that they were doing something
with their own profits, you know, it's...
681
00:44:34,673 --> 00:44:36,272
Not necessarily responsible,
682
00:44:36,274 --> 00:44:41,811
but it's totally legal for a company to
take their profits and, um, invest them.
683
00:44:41,813 --> 00:44:44,580
[Gerald] Arbitrage is actually one
thing that I've done quite a bit of.
684
00:44:44,582 --> 00:44:45,948
[Man] But what's arbitrage?
685
00:44:45,950 --> 00:44:48,551
[Gerald] Arbitrage is
basically a financial term
686
00:44:48,553 --> 00:44:50,219
where you buy
something at a lower price,
687
00:44:50,221 --> 00:44:51,888
resell it at a higher
price instantly,
688
00:44:51,890 --> 00:44:55,858
so you never actually have
any chance of losing money.
689
00:44:55,860 --> 00:45:00,029
[Ryan] Price differences between
exchanges were often quite significant.
690
00:45:00,532 --> 00:45:02,932
It's often a fraction of 1%,
691
00:45:02,934 --> 00:45:04,734
but if we're talking
millions of dollars,
692
00:45:04,736 --> 00:45:06,069
then that could be
a significant profit
693
00:45:06,071 --> 00:45:08,938
for the person who
facilitates that trade.
694
00:45:08,940 --> 00:45:11,074
[Man] How many coins do
you buy at a time like this?
695
00:45:11,076 --> 00:45:12,742
[Gerald] Oh, like
hundreds or so...
696
00:45:12,744 --> 00:45:14,042
[Man] Really?
697
00:45:14,044 --> 00:45:16,079
[Gerald] Yeah, it was very
profitable in November and...
698
00:45:16,081 --> 00:45:20,116
[Man] Are we hanging out with Mark
Zuckerberg now? Is that what's going on?
699
00:45:20,118 --> 00:45:23,820
There's this theory out
there that he lost the money
700
00:45:23,822 --> 00:45:26,289
by trying to trade
his way out of debt.
701
00:45:28,727 --> 00:45:30,193
[Andrew] The beginning
of Gerry's snowball
702
00:45:30,195 --> 00:45:32,762
was theory in classic
loss and the banking loss.
703
00:45:32,764 --> 00:45:34,697
Started his snowball
where he thinks,
704
00:45:34,699 --> 00:45:36,099
"well, I'm only 30
million in the hole.
705
00:45:36,101 --> 00:45:39,001
I bet if this gamble
pays off I can recuperate,
706
00:45:39,003 --> 00:45:41,237
no one will never
know what happened."
707
00:45:49,948 --> 00:45:52,381
[David] Gerry seems
to have thought
708
00:45:52,383 --> 00:45:54,584
that he could trade his
way out of his problems.
709
00:45:54,586 --> 00:45:56,385
This sort of trading
that's gambling.
710
00:45:58,089 --> 00:46:01,023
He was just really bad
at it, he lost all the money
711
00:46:01,025 --> 00:46:02,892
and it's like, "why
did you do this?"
712
00:46:02,894 --> 00:46:05,461
It looks very like an
overconfident idiot.
713
00:46:12,971 --> 00:46:15,738
[Taylor] I'm not convinced
that he is a bumbling idiot
714
00:46:15,740 --> 00:46:20,143
because if you're operating
an exchange, there is...
715
00:46:21,179 --> 00:46:25,414
Opportunity to do a whole
bunch of nefarious things.
716
00:46:26,217 --> 00:46:29,185
The strongest, I
guess, theory I have is,
717
00:46:29,187 --> 00:46:31,154
like, some sort of
money laundering.
718
00:46:33,658 --> 00:46:35,558
[Amber] Criminals commit crimes,
719
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:38,561
those crimes generate profits,
they want to hide the money
720
00:46:38,563 --> 00:46:39,962
by moving it through
the financial system
721
00:46:39,964 --> 00:46:42,832
and the process of hiding that
money is called money laundering.
722
00:46:42,834 --> 00:46:48,237
Cryptocurrency is both very
easy to trace and very hard to trace.
723
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:51,674
[Alexandra] There could be wallets
that people didn't even know about.
724
00:46:51,676 --> 00:46:54,177
Once you get to
another exchange,
725
00:46:54,179 --> 00:46:58,114
then only the exchange knows what
happened with those transactions. Right?
726
00:46:58,116 --> 00:46:59,849
Because they could
be transferred between
727
00:46:59,851 --> 00:47:01,551
different accounts
at that exchange,
728
00:47:01,553 --> 00:47:03,953
it could be converted
between different currencies,
729
00:47:03,955 --> 00:47:06,055
then it could move to
a different exchange
730
00:47:06,057 --> 00:47:07,089
through a different
wallet address
731
00:47:07,091 --> 00:47:10,193
and at that point you
sort of lose the paper trail.
732
00:47:10,195 --> 00:47:11,761
As soon as you start
involving different countries,
733
00:47:11,763 --> 00:47:14,330
different currencies, it
becomes much harder to trace.
734
00:47:16,401 --> 00:47:18,234
[Taylor] I went on
Twitter, and I said like,
735
00:47:18,236 --> 00:47:21,704
"here's some interesting
transactions or interesting patterns."
736
00:47:21,706 --> 00:47:24,674
And that's when the people
that had been doing the research,
737
00:47:24,676 --> 00:47:26,843
the journalists, that's
when they stared at me, like,
738
00:47:26,845 --> 00:47:29,045
"so you guys followed
the money, but, like,
739
00:47:29,047 --> 00:47:31,180
here's his social background.
740
00:47:31,182 --> 00:47:34,884
Here's the business documents,
here's the list of people,
741
00:47:34,886 --> 00:47:37,687
like, real life
people in his life."
742
00:47:37,689 --> 00:47:40,590
And that's when I was like,
"oh, shit, this is amazing."
743
00:47:40,592 --> 00:47:44,527
Like, "this is terrible. This
is like the best story ever."
744
00:47:56,808 --> 00:48:01,043
[Alexandra] The Internet was filled with
all these rumors about Michael patryn.
745
00:48:01,512 --> 00:48:04,347
Yeah, those rumors
were very persistent.
746
00:48:07,752 --> 00:48:11,754
I know, I was very intrigued by it
cause I looked up Michael patryn
747
00:48:11,756 --> 00:48:16,559
and I saw that he graduated
from the university or something,
748
00:48:16,561 --> 00:48:20,863
so I just e-mailed the school to find out
like, "hey, did this guy actually graduate?"
749
00:48:20,865 --> 00:48:24,934
And they said we have no
record of somebody with that name.
750
00:48:27,071 --> 00:48:29,572
I was like, "okay,
that's not adding up.
751
00:48:29,574 --> 00:48:32,241
There must be something
more going on here."
752
00:48:33,244 --> 00:48:36,979
Been working with digital
currency since about 2003.
753
00:48:38,583 --> 00:48:40,616
Everything okay?
754
00:48:40,618 --> 00:48:43,853
[Alexandra] Someone at the time
had posted how he was actually
755
00:48:43,855 --> 00:48:46,756
this money launderer or
that he was an identity theft.
756
00:48:46,758 --> 00:48:50,493
And that he actually went by a
different name which was Omar dhanani.
757
00:48:53,598 --> 00:48:58,100
Omar dhanani is a guy who served
time in prison in the United States
758
00:48:58,102 --> 00:49:01,771
for his role in an identity
theft and credit card fraud ring
759
00:49:01,773 --> 00:49:03,072
called "shadow crew."
760
00:49:05,009 --> 00:49:08,911
And the service that he
provided to shadow crew members
761
00:49:08,913 --> 00:49:10,513
was a money laundering service.
762
00:49:13,651 --> 00:49:17,219
So shadow crew gets
busted by us authorities.
763
00:49:20,758 --> 00:49:22,591
And he was sentenced
to 18 months,
764
00:49:22,593 --> 00:49:26,062
and it does look like he
served close to that sentence.
765
00:49:26,531 --> 00:49:30,232
And then we've managed
to obtain the booking photo
766
00:49:31,636 --> 00:49:35,938
of Omar dhanani from the passaic
county sheriff's office in New Jersey
767
00:49:35,940 --> 00:49:38,441
where he was taking in
on his shadow crew charges
768
00:49:38,943 --> 00:49:41,110
and we tell Michael patryn,
769
00:49:41,112 --> 00:49:43,813
"look, we have these
two photos of you.
770
00:49:43,815 --> 00:49:46,549
And I mean, they're
of you." [Chuckling]
771
00:49:49,887 --> 00:49:53,022
Close to 15 years had past
between those two photos,
772
00:49:53,024 --> 00:49:54,991
but it's still very clearly
the same person.
773
00:49:54,993 --> 00:49:56,993
He's got the same
facial features.
774
00:49:56,995 --> 00:50:00,196
You can see there's some
kind of, like, scar or pock Mark
775
00:50:00,198 --> 00:50:02,932
or something kind
of on his forehead.
776
00:50:02,934 --> 00:50:06,002
And so he asks us to
send him the photos.
777
00:50:06,004 --> 00:50:08,104
So we obliged, we
sent him the photos.
778
00:50:09,140 --> 00:50:11,574
[Joe] Yeah, he told us
779
00:50:11,576 --> 00:50:14,844
"while I obviously disagree
with your conclusions,
780
00:50:14,846 --> 00:50:19,181
I have to wait for counsel prior
to responding more thoroughly,
781
00:50:19,183 --> 00:50:20,883
which is unlikely to happen
before your deadline."
782
00:50:20,885 --> 00:50:22,385
Bye-bye.
783
00:50:25,757 --> 00:50:30,926
[David] Bloomberg went and
found the, uh, actual name changes.
784
00:50:30,928 --> 00:50:32,161
[Alexandra] He went
from Omar dhanani
785
00:50:32,163 --> 00:50:35,197
to Omar patryn and
ultimately to Michael patryn.
786
00:50:35,199 --> 00:50:37,066
[David] So his name
is Michael patryn,
787
00:50:37,068 --> 00:50:39,702
that's his legal name,
but he is the same guy
788
00:50:39,704 --> 00:50:41,871
who was Omar dhanani,
the convicted hacker.
789
00:50:41,873 --> 00:50:43,939
And we had even
asked him, remember?
790
00:50:43,941 --> 00:50:46,942
We said, "are you Omar
dhanani?" And he just said "no."
791
00:50:48,780 --> 00:50:50,579
A man of mystery, I guess.
792
00:50:50,581 --> 00:50:57,086
[Tense music playing]
793
00:51:04,195 --> 00:51:07,263
[Andrew] This is our headquarters
of sorts. I can see your car from here.
794
00:51:07,265 --> 00:51:09,331
You are currently
not being robbed.
795
00:51:11,969 --> 00:51:13,936
I knew Mike better than Gerry.
796
00:51:13,938 --> 00:51:16,639
Some people called
him a huge tough guy.
797
00:51:16,641 --> 00:51:20,176
One time, his dog got
hurt and he practically cried.
798
00:51:20,178 --> 00:51:22,645
A tiny little dog. It's
kind of humorous to me.
799
00:51:22,647 --> 00:51:24,580
Like, "wow, that's
gangster of you."
800
00:51:26,017 --> 00:51:29,552
I think that's probably a lot
of people who do bad things.
801
00:51:29,554 --> 00:51:31,454
People are very complicated.
802
00:51:32,557 --> 00:51:36,492
Like, I heard accusations
about identity theft,
803
00:51:36,494 --> 00:51:41,764
and I told them, "you have to tell me
the truth, your name, what you've done."
804
00:51:41,766 --> 00:51:45,000
And he just refused
to be honest with me.
805
00:51:45,002 --> 00:51:47,536
So I just said, "we can't
be friends anymore."
806
00:51:49,707 --> 00:51:53,843
How do you get to a
point where this individual
807
00:51:53,845 --> 00:51:56,078
who's definitely known
to police in Canada
808
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:58,180
is responsible for
people's money?
809
00:52:03,888 --> 00:52:07,123
[Upbeat music playing]
810
00:52:07,125 --> 00:52:09,758
[Amy] Why would Michael
patryn step out of the picture?
811
00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:13,462
And what was
Michael patryn doing
812
00:52:13,464 --> 00:52:17,566
between 2016 when he
left quadriga and 2019...
813
00:52:17,568 --> 00:52:21,403
[Amy] We know a lot more about
Gerald cotten now and Michael patryn.
814
00:52:21,405 --> 00:52:23,072
We found out that they met
815
00:52:23,074 --> 00:52:26,308
long before they
launched quadriga together.
816
00:52:28,946 --> 00:52:31,981
Michael patryn, he met
Gerald back, way back when,
817
00:52:31,983 --> 00:52:36,585
we think he met Gerald probably
on the talkgold forms in around 2003.
818
00:52:36,587 --> 00:52:39,822
This was ten years
before quadriga launched.
819
00:52:39,824 --> 00:52:44,193
Talkgold forms, that was a form
for promoting Ponzi schemes.
820
00:52:46,631 --> 00:52:49,965
[Tong] He was in high school and
that's where he met Mike patryn.
821
00:52:49,967 --> 00:52:53,202
He's been doing this kind of
schemy stuff since he was young.
822
00:52:54,372 --> 00:52:57,006
[Joe] Do you remember s&s
investments when he was a teenager?
823
00:52:57,008 --> 00:52:58,474
[Alexandra] Yeah, of course.
824
00:52:58,476 --> 00:53:00,876
His first Ponzi scheme
that we found. Like,
825
00:53:00,878 --> 00:53:06,482
he did lose investors' money
then too and tried to return it all.
826
00:53:06,484 --> 00:53:10,853
[David] Gerry cotten he was a
Ponzi schemer since he was 15.
827
00:53:10,855 --> 00:53:15,558
And he's a guy who thought, "I can get
money out of people just for the asking."
828
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:17,860
Yeah, I actually, uh,
heard a sort of an anecdote
829
00:53:17,862 --> 00:53:21,730
about how he, uh, was buying
candy from a confectionary,
830
00:53:21,732 --> 00:53:24,833
reselling it to kids
in several countries.
831
00:53:24,835 --> 00:53:29,038
You know, you can look at that as
an ambitious young entrepreneur,
832
00:53:29,040 --> 00:53:31,574
but I don't think
I'd go that far.
833
00:53:43,254 --> 00:53:44,753
[Alexandra] After he's
released from prison,
834
00:53:44,755 --> 00:53:47,523
we know that Omar dhanani
was deported to Canada
835
00:53:47,525 --> 00:53:51,527
and then registered a
company called midas gold.
836
00:53:54,765 --> 00:53:57,900
It's basically an exchanger
for Liberty reserve.
837
00:53:57,902 --> 00:54:01,770
This, uh, very large
black market bank.
838
00:54:01,772 --> 00:54:04,006
So he gets back into
moving money again,
839
00:54:04,008 --> 00:54:05,641
cause that's what he knows best.
840
00:54:05,643 --> 00:54:10,012
There was evidence that Gerald
cotten was involved in that as well.
841
00:54:17,922 --> 00:54:20,923
[Alexandra] And then Liberty
reserve, of course, gets busted.
842
00:54:20,925 --> 00:54:22,291
[Amy] So that's done with.
843
00:54:22,893 --> 00:54:24,960
So what next?
844
00:54:24,962 --> 00:54:29,598
Well, suddenly, cotten and
patryn appear in Vancouver
845
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:31,800
in the bitcoin, you
know, community.
846
00:54:31,802 --> 00:54:35,638
With bitcoin you basically
get rid of that large corporation.
847
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:37,940
So I was really, really
fascinated with that technology.
848
00:54:37,942 --> 00:54:41,176
He talked up this sort of
libertarian bitcoin angle.
849
00:54:41,178 --> 00:54:44,546
"I believe in everything you
guys believe, you should trust me."
850
00:54:44,548 --> 00:54:46,749
Everyone liked them. They
supported the community
851
00:54:46,751 --> 00:54:49,118
in a time when no
one else really would.
852
00:54:50,921 --> 00:54:54,223
He almost never said
anything in co-op meetings.
853
00:54:54,225 --> 00:54:55,958
He sat there and smiled.
854
00:54:56,127 --> 00:54:57,960
Always smiling.
855
00:55:00,931 --> 00:55:03,599
Maybe in hindsight
there's a red flag
856
00:55:03,601 --> 00:55:06,335
that someone too generous
is too good to be true.
857
00:55:07,972 --> 00:55:10,973
[Taylor] Money laundering
and scamming people in Ponzi,
858
00:55:10,975 --> 00:55:13,208
once you realize that
Gerald's been doing that...
859
00:55:14,745 --> 00:55:17,780
It's harder to say, like,
you know, flip a coin
860
00:55:17,782 --> 00:55:19,748
and he could be a bumbling
idiot or an evil genius.
861
00:55:19,750 --> 00:55:22,685
Like, you look at
it and you just go...
862
00:55:22,687 --> 00:55:24,887
"Well, what are the chances
that both these people
863
00:55:24,889 --> 00:55:26,922
literally turned over a new leaf
864
00:55:26,924 --> 00:55:30,326
six months after their
last Ponzi exit scam?"
865
00:55:33,097 --> 00:55:36,465
Fifth report, that was the,
um, really excoriating one.
866
00:55:36,467 --> 00:55:38,267
Yeah. [Laughing]
867
00:55:42,006 --> 00:55:43,972
[Taylor] We have found out
later through Ernst and young,
868
00:55:43,974 --> 00:55:48,110
Gerald cotten was setting up
fake accounts on the exchange.
869
00:55:48,112 --> 00:55:51,213
14 fake accounts, things,
names like "aretwo deetwo."
870
00:55:52,016 --> 00:55:53,982
And "seethree peaohh."
871
00:55:56,120 --> 00:55:59,788
So if you would send
money to quadriga,
872
00:55:59,790 --> 00:56:01,757
what you would see in
your quadriga account
873
00:56:01,759 --> 00:56:03,926
would be not real
Canadian dollars,
874
00:56:03,928 --> 00:56:05,994
but what were called quad bucks.
875
00:56:05,996 --> 00:56:07,796
[Alexandra] Quadrigacx bucks.
876
00:56:07,798 --> 00:56:09,865
This was kind of an
in between currency.
877
00:56:09,867 --> 00:56:11,934
[Amy] They weren't real dollars.
878
00:56:11,936 --> 00:56:18,040
Now, the problem with that is
you can make money out of nothing.
879
00:56:18,042 --> 00:56:22,845
He was funding these accounts
with fake crypto, fake dollars.
880
00:56:22,847 --> 00:56:25,347
["Dirty cash" by the
adventures of Stevie v playing]
881
00:56:28,919 --> 00:56:32,087
[Amy] Bitcoin atm, they're
great tools for money laundering.
882
00:56:32,089 --> 00:56:33,889
If you didn't wanna
have a financial trail,
883
00:56:33,891 --> 00:56:35,591
you just go and feed that cash
884
00:56:35,593 --> 00:56:37,192
and it was hooked
right up to the exchange.
885
00:56:37,194 --> 00:56:41,563
♪ Dirty cash I want you,
dirty cash I need you, ooh ♪
886
00:56:41,565 --> 00:56:44,733
♪ money talks, money talks ♪
887
00:56:44,735 --> 00:56:47,069
♪ dirty cash I want you... ♪
888
00:56:47,071 --> 00:56:49,738
People could actually, if they
withdrew money from the exchange,
889
00:56:49,740 --> 00:56:53,108
if they could go and pick
up cash at a certain location.
890
00:56:54,945 --> 00:56:59,481
They'd even have boxes of cash
sent to them to their door, okay?
891
00:57:00,584 --> 00:57:02,718
Shoe boxes of cash delivered.
892
00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:05,954
That's a tip off for some
funny business right there.
893
00:57:08,559 --> 00:57:12,428
According to court documents
that we have from Ernst and young,
894
00:57:12,430 --> 00:57:16,265
Gerald cotten would direct these
third party payment processors
895
00:57:16,267 --> 00:57:21,103
or shell companies to, to funnel
money directly into his bank account
896
00:57:21,105 --> 00:57:23,572
and the accounts of,
of Jennifer robertson.
897
00:57:24,842 --> 00:57:27,676
♪ Dirty cash I want
you. Dirty cash... ♪
898
00:57:27,678 --> 00:57:29,077
- Oh, that's great.
- They even stole...
899
00:57:29,079 --> 00:57:33,048
The stove full of all the unpaid
checks. That's just fabulous.
900
00:57:36,353 --> 00:57:40,989
There was a great photo
which was from one of the,
901
00:57:40,991 --> 00:57:43,158
hearings of stove top
902
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:46,195
with bundles of bank
drafts sitting on it.
903
00:57:46,197 --> 00:57:49,198
That have been there
two years uncashed.
904
00:57:49,200 --> 00:57:51,700
People were sending
them money in 2017,
905
00:57:51,702 --> 00:57:54,136
they never even banked
it or cashed it in any way.
906
00:57:54,138 --> 00:57:56,538
It's like, "how does that work?"
907
00:57:56,540 --> 00:57:59,441
It was some sort of money
laundering chop-shop.
908
00:58:01,779 --> 00:58:03,412
We take steps to
make sure that people
909
00:58:03,414 --> 00:58:05,214
aren't laundering funds
through our system.
910
00:58:05,216 --> 00:58:09,418
We obviously don't wanna facilitate any
sort of illicit transaction of that type.
911
00:58:10,754 --> 00:58:13,856
[David] I'm just imagining the
person that Ernst and young
912
00:58:13,858 --> 00:58:15,157
are writing those
monitor reports.
913
00:58:15,159 --> 00:58:17,960
They don't actually say
"and everyone involved
914
00:58:17,962 --> 00:58:19,061
should go to jail immediately."
915
00:58:19,063 --> 00:58:21,029
But they totally meant it.
916
00:58:24,568 --> 00:58:26,201
So you have to have
a certain intelligence
917
00:58:26,203 --> 00:58:30,239
and understanding of people
and greed to be a good conman.
918
00:58:30,241 --> 00:58:33,242
It's possible that he
realized sometime in 2018
919
00:58:33,244 --> 00:58:36,078
that he'd really
screwed up his own con.
920
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:38,747
At what point he
started to think,
921
00:58:38,749 --> 00:58:41,984
"maybe I have to have an
idea for how to step out of this."
922
00:58:42,620 --> 00:58:43,919
[David] The scam was collapsing.
923
00:58:43,921 --> 00:58:47,155
He couldn't keep it going
any longer, then oops he died.
924
00:58:47,157 --> 00:58:52,027
Quite soon after he died, uh,
someone came to me and said,
925
00:58:52,763 --> 00:58:55,330
"dude, he's not dead."
926
00:58:55,332 --> 00:59:00,235
[Amy] It was the time of his
death that made people wonder
927
00:59:03,741 --> 00:59:08,477
was there a possibility that he had
faked his death? Was this an exit scam?
928
00:59:10,047 --> 00:59:12,781
If you were going
to fake a death,
929
00:59:12,783 --> 00:59:15,317
India would be a
great place to do that.
930
00:59:15,319 --> 00:59:16,818
[Alex] You know,
dying on his honeymoon
931
00:59:16,820 --> 00:59:18,153
while building an
orphanage for children,
932
00:59:18,155 --> 00:59:19,922
this is all, like, too perfect.
933
00:59:19,924 --> 00:59:22,057
So nice that it's
a red flag for me.
934
00:59:22,059 --> 00:59:23,692
[Alexandra] He's building
an orphanage, okay?
935
00:59:23,694 --> 00:59:25,561
Well, maybe he's
a philanthropist
936
00:59:25,563 --> 00:59:28,063
and then I kind of ran
that by a couple of people
937
00:59:28,065 --> 00:59:30,899
and they said, "no, we
never really knew Gerry
938
00:59:30,901 --> 00:59:32,901
to have this sort
of charitable side."
939
00:59:32,903 --> 00:59:35,304
[Amy] Everything is falling
apart in the exchange,
940
00:59:35,306 --> 00:59:37,873
and it was at this point
where make or break.
941
00:59:37,875 --> 00:59:41,410
And we have seen exit scams in
the cryptocurrency world before.
942
00:59:46,550 --> 00:59:48,850
[Mitch] And then someone came
on the Reddit, qcx contractor,
943
00:59:48,852 --> 00:59:50,786
they claimed to be a contractor
944
00:59:50,788 --> 00:59:53,922
and they showed of internal
screenshots of company communications.
945
00:59:53,924 --> 00:59:55,891
They're not confident he's dead.
946
00:59:55,893 --> 00:59:58,126
They're at the funeral,
didn't see a body.
947
01:00:00,364 --> 01:00:02,731
[Alex] So, this is
something I came up with.
948
01:00:02,733 --> 01:00:04,266
So this is a full theory.
949
01:00:04,268 --> 01:00:07,703
There is this stuff is known
as Haitian zombie powder.
950
01:00:07,705 --> 01:00:11,173
So witch doctors in Haiti, what
they do is they'll give you this drug
951
01:00:11,175 --> 01:00:15,243
which makes you appear dead for
up to a few days until you get the cure.
952
01:00:29,426 --> 01:00:34,463
[Tense music playing]
953
01:00:49,847 --> 01:00:53,382
The conspiracy theorists on the
Internet are like, "he's definitely alive."
954
01:00:53,384 --> 01:00:56,685
Like, no, everyone is like,
"we don't know if he's dead.
955
01:00:56,687 --> 01:00:59,087
We don't know if
he's alive. Flip a coin."
956
01:01:01,825 --> 01:01:03,225
[Nathan] The rumors
were quite rampant
957
01:01:03,227 --> 01:01:04,860
that perhaps he had
faked his own death.
958
01:01:04,862 --> 01:01:07,596
People have dug
up old news reports
959
01:01:07,598 --> 01:01:11,133
from other parts of India
with fake death rings.
960
01:01:17,007 --> 01:01:22,911
To me it wasn't so much being
driven by conflicting hypothesis,
961
01:01:22,913 --> 01:01:25,714
so much as it was kind
of the thrill of the chase.
962
01:01:25,716 --> 01:01:30,118
[Tense music playing]
963
01:01:35,225 --> 01:01:39,561
[Nathan] It was my assignment to
go to jaipur and try to piece together
964
01:01:39,563 --> 01:01:41,430
what happened
in his final hours.
965
01:01:45,836 --> 01:01:48,336
The first task was to
find the death certificate.
966
01:01:48,939 --> 01:01:51,640
We hopped in an auto rickshaw
967
01:01:51,642 --> 01:01:56,044
and made it to the registrar's
office, which was small.
968
01:01:57,781 --> 01:02:02,084
There were desks and shelves
that were just stacked full of papers.
969
01:02:03,187 --> 01:02:04,252
And, uh, the next thing we know,
970
01:02:04,254 --> 01:02:05,887
they had pulled up the
actual death certificate
971
01:02:05,889 --> 01:02:09,257
and they said, "would you like
a copy?" And we said, "sure."
972
01:02:10,227 --> 01:02:12,861
And I just remember, I was
working with the local journalists
973
01:02:12,863 --> 01:02:15,764
who speaks hindi,
a local fixer, um,
974
01:02:15,766 --> 01:02:18,633
and just high fiving like,
"wow, this is great. We got it!"
975
01:02:18,635 --> 01:02:20,302
You know? "This is happening!"
976
01:02:21,171 --> 01:02:23,271
The death certificate had
his name spelled wrong.
977
01:02:23,273 --> 01:02:26,641
It was cottan with c-o-t-t-a-n.
978
01:02:26,643 --> 01:02:32,047
That death certificate came from
the official computer of the registrar,
979
01:02:32,049 --> 01:02:36,017
and it confirmed the
address of the deceased
980
01:02:36,019 --> 01:02:40,122
at the time of death was,
uh, the oberoi rajvilas hotel,
981
01:02:40,124 --> 01:02:42,991
which is the most
expensive hotel in the city.
982
01:02:45,529 --> 01:02:46,962
We got in another auto rickshaw,
983
01:02:46,964 --> 01:02:52,834
and we traipsed across
the city to the oberoi rajvilas.
984
01:02:52,836 --> 01:02:56,538
This place was built sort
of as a modern day palace.
985
01:02:58,575 --> 01:03:01,376
Very, very large, sort
of verdant grounds.
986
01:03:02,646 --> 01:03:05,147
It's quiet, there's
peacock calls.
987
01:03:07,851 --> 01:03:10,852
I'm not sure there
are that many guests
988
01:03:10,854 --> 01:03:15,056
who show up at the oberoi
rajvilas in, um, in auto rickshaw.
989
01:03:16,293 --> 01:03:18,026
But then eventually they
let us in and then we said,
990
01:03:18,028 --> 01:03:20,095
"we'd like to speak with
the general manager."
991
01:03:20,097 --> 01:03:22,831
He just said, you know, "it was
very sad what had happened"
992
01:03:22,833 --> 01:03:27,068
and he didn't wanna speak about
anything else. And so that was that.
993
01:03:28,806 --> 01:03:31,807
We weren't able to entirely
piece together their itinerary.
994
01:03:31,809 --> 01:03:35,677
They landed in New Delhi
and then they went to jaipur,
995
01:03:35,679 --> 01:03:39,347
and we did know that their
next destination was hyderabad.
996
01:03:41,351 --> 01:03:43,885
They had said that they were
going to open an orphanage
997
01:03:43,887 --> 01:03:46,555
and a picture had
emerged on Reddit
998
01:03:46,557 --> 01:03:48,924
showing this orphanage.
999
01:03:48,926 --> 01:03:52,027
And so the question was,
"is the orphanage real?
1000
01:03:52,029 --> 01:03:53,094
Does it exist?"
1001
01:03:53,096 --> 01:03:54,963
And indeed it did exist.
1002
01:03:56,066 --> 01:03:57,566
With their names
on the red sign,
1003
01:03:57,568 --> 01:03:59,835
their names were inside as well.
1004
01:03:59,837 --> 01:04:02,637
Their plans were to
spend two hours there
1005
01:04:02,639 --> 01:04:05,073
and turn around, uh, and leave.
1006
01:04:05,075 --> 01:04:08,076
Two hours was a relatively
short amount of time
1007
01:04:08,078 --> 01:04:09,978
to, to book for
something like that.
1008
01:04:09,980 --> 01:04:13,181
[Engine starting]
1009
01:04:14,318 --> 01:04:16,017
[Nathan] For me,
the big question was,
1010
01:04:16,019 --> 01:04:18,420
"what happened in the hospital?"
1011
01:04:18,422 --> 01:04:20,121
We had a statement
from the hospital,
1012
01:04:20,123 --> 01:04:26,027
but what we did not have was a really sort
of detailed view into what had taken place.
1013
01:04:27,698 --> 01:04:31,333
And so we wanted
to find the doctor.
1014
01:04:32,636 --> 01:04:38,907
Gerry cotten had frequent episodes
of vomiting and watery stools.
1015
01:04:38,909 --> 01:04:40,909
Doctors said at first they thought
it was just traveler's diarrhea,
1016
01:04:40,911 --> 01:04:43,245
which is very common,
of course, in India.
1017
01:04:44,114 --> 01:04:46,114
He said, uh, Jennifer robertson
1018
01:04:46,116 --> 01:04:48,283
spent the night in
the hospital with him
1019
01:04:48,285 --> 01:04:51,853
and in the following day he had
been booked for an ultrasound.
1020
01:04:51,855 --> 01:04:53,955
As he was booked
for the ultrasound
1021
01:04:53,957 --> 01:04:57,425
he started experiencing what the
doctor described as restlessness
1022
01:04:58,729 --> 01:05:00,328
and a shortage of breath.
1023
01:05:02,699 --> 01:05:04,532
They were worried
about a rupture
1024
01:05:04,534 --> 01:05:07,002
or something else
in his intestine.
1025
01:05:07,004 --> 01:05:08,803
Things went downhill
very, very quickly.
1026
01:05:08,805 --> 01:05:13,942
[Beeping]
1027
01:05:13,944 --> 01:05:16,344
[Nathan] He had a heart
attack. He was revived.
1028
01:05:16,613 --> 01:05:21,917
[Beeping]
1029
01:05:21,919 --> 01:05:26,187
[Nathan] And he had another
heart attack and they revived him.
1030
01:05:28,058 --> 01:05:30,558
And then he had a third heart
attack, and they couldn't revive him.
1031
01:05:30,560 --> 01:05:34,562
[Beeping stops]
1032
01:05:36,099 --> 01:05:40,669
And, uh, he died
within about 25 hours
1033
01:05:40,671 --> 01:05:42,871
of them touching down in jaipur.
1034
01:05:42,873 --> 01:05:48,510
He died within about 25 hours
of them touching down in jaipur.
1035
01:05:49,479 --> 01:05:50,946
Dramatic.
1036
01:05:52,783 --> 01:05:57,085
When it's coming out both ends
it's almost always an infection.
1037
01:05:58,722 --> 01:06:04,125
What crohn's disease is, it's when the
immune system is inappropriately turned on
1038
01:06:04,127 --> 01:06:06,494
and causing damage to the bowel.
1039
01:06:07,230 --> 01:06:09,130
From the story that
we heard it sounds
1040
01:06:09,132 --> 01:06:10,966
as if something
catastrophic happened
1041
01:06:10,968 --> 01:06:13,168
like he had a
perforation in his bowel
1042
01:06:13,170 --> 01:06:16,171
and then an acquired infection.
1043
01:06:16,173 --> 01:06:18,840
The doctor seemed quite
troubled by the whole thing.
1044
01:06:18,842 --> 01:06:21,309
Uh, he said he, he made clear
1045
01:06:21,311 --> 01:06:23,611
that he'd been running through
this again and again and again.
1046
01:06:23,613 --> 01:06:25,814
The doctor had
come to the conclusion
1047
01:06:25,816 --> 01:06:28,350
about what was the
most likely cause of death.
1048
01:06:29,419 --> 01:06:31,653
One of the things that
happens with crohn's disease
1049
01:06:31,655 --> 01:06:33,588
is this possibility
of a perforation
1050
01:06:33,590 --> 01:06:37,125
and that can lead
very rapidly to sepsis.
1051
01:06:37,127 --> 01:06:38,994
[Brian] But now we're assuming
that's what happened there.
1052
01:06:38,996 --> 01:06:40,695
He may just had
a cardiac arrest.
1053
01:06:40,697 --> 01:06:44,899
It is obviously very, um,
uncommon that someone,
1054
01:06:44,901 --> 01:06:49,104
um, at that age without
any other cardiac
1055
01:06:49,106 --> 01:06:51,139
or respiratory problems
1056
01:06:51,141 --> 01:06:54,209
would have not
survived that event.
1057
01:06:55,779 --> 01:06:58,146
But if they weren't
properly resuscitated,
1058
01:06:58,148 --> 01:07:00,782
then certainly that...
Something like that
1059
01:07:00,784 --> 01:07:02,417
could've led to,
to one's demise.
1060
01:07:07,057 --> 01:07:08,723
[Nathan] I spoke
with the police.
1061
01:07:08,725 --> 01:07:10,892
He said, "as far
as I'm concerned,
1062
01:07:10,894 --> 01:07:13,661
this was a natural death.
There was no autopsy."
1063
01:07:13,663 --> 01:07:15,430
Why was there no autopsy, doc?
1064
01:07:15,432 --> 01:07:19,968
You do that in a case where there are
suspicions about what might've happened.
1065
01:07:19,970 --> 01:07:23,838
I actually even
showed Dr. Sharma
1066
01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:27,142
pictures of Gerry cotten and
said, "is this... Is this the guy?"
1067
01:07:27,144 --> 01:07:28,009
And he said, "yes."
1068
01:07:28,011 --> 01:07:29,778
And everywhere I went,
1069
01:07:29,780 --> 01:07:32,714
anyone that had a
record of, of Gerry cotten
1070
01:07:32,716 --> 01:07:36,051
had photocopies of
his passport as well.
1071
01:07:39,689 --> 01:07:43,224
I certainly didn't meet anyone who
thought that the death was faked.
1072
01:07:44,461 --> 01:07:45,727
There was a tourist
that had died and
1073
01:07:45,729 --> 01:07:48,563
at the time nobody had
really asked any questions.
1074
01:07:48,565 --> 01:07:51,966
I suppose if you look at this stripped
of all the questions that emerged later
1075
01:07:51,968 --> 01:07:55,937
you can look at this as just
a horrifically sad 24-48 hours,
1076
01:07:55,939 --> 01:07:58,440
uh, for a newly married couple.
1077
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:07,549
[David] Reputable journalists
have spoken to the doctor and so on,
1078
01:08:07,551 --> 01:08:09,684
and think his story is good.
1079
01:08:09,686 --> 01:08:13,588
But I think it would be ridiculous
not to have doubts about it.
1080
01:08:14,858 --> 01:08:16,691
We're talking about
quite a lot of money.
1081
01:08:16,693 --> 01:08:21,529
There's quite enough money to bribe
absolutely everybody in all the chain and
1082
01:08:21,531 --> 01:08:24,199
quadriga were not
shy about blowing cash.
1083
01:08:24,201 --> 01:08:26,000
I mean, it happens really quick.
1084
01:08:26,002 --> 01:08:29,971
He gets sick on the
8th, he's dead on the 9th.
1085
01:08:30,774 --> 01:08:34,542
You know, he's on a plane
back to Canada on the 10th.
1086
01:08:34,544 --> 01:08:37,178
Um, the services
are on the 14th.
1087
01:08:38,014 --> 01:08:42,917
It's, uh, apparently from
what we know closed casket.
1088
01:08:42,919 --> 01:08:47,388
Um, Jennifer robertson is the
executer, so she makes that decision.
1089
01:08:53,029 --> 01:08:54,829
[Nathan] There were
a few more questions.
1090
01:08:54,831 --> 01:08:56,931
Uh, one was what had... what
had happened with the body?
1091
01:08:56,933 --> 01:08:59,367
Because it was a
closed casket funeral
1092
01:08:59,369 --> 01:09:01,936
and so people were asking questions
about, "was there actually a body?
1093
01:09:01,938 --> 01:09:03,103
What's happening?"
1094
01:09:03,105 --> 01:09:05,306
And so we also wanted to
speak with the embalmer.
1095
01:09:07,844 --> 01:09:09,577
So we walk into this
office and this woman,
1096
01:09:09,579 --> 01:09:12,180
Dr. Seynara is sitting there,
1097
01:09:12,182 --> 01:09:14,716
and we said, "hey, we're here,
you know, trying to understand
1098
01:09:14,718 --> 01:09:15,917
a little bit about what happened
1099
01:09:15,919 --> 01:09:18,153
to a Canadian man who
died here." She's like, "oh."
1100
01:09:18,155 --> 01:09:21,089
She's like, "yes, yes,
they brought the body here
1101
01:09:21,091 --> 01:09:24,025
and I refused to embalm
it." And we were like, "what?"
1102
01:09:26,563 --> 01:09:30,064
The embalmer thought that
the circumstances were fishy
1103
01:09:30,066 --> 01:09:35,036
because as she recalled a
representative of the hotel had come,
1104
01:09:35,038 --> 01:09:36,704
which she found very strange.
1105
01:09:36,706 --> 01:09:39,741
Normally the body would
come by ambulance,
1106
01:09:39,743 --> 01:09:42,577
normally the communication
would come directly from the hospital.
1107
01:09:42,579 --> 01:09:44,712
And when she asked
what had happened
1108
01:09:44,714 --> 01:09:49,217
she was given only a sort of a very
cursory description of what had happened.
1109
01:09:50,187 --> 01:09:51,619
She's like, "well, this
is very, very strange."
1110
01:09:51,621 --> 01:09:54,189
And so she said no.
1111
01:09:54,191 --> 01:09:58,026
She suggested they take the
body to the sms medical college.
1112
01:10:00,030 --> 01:10:02,363
It's a place where the
police are often present
1113
01:10:02,365 --> 01:10:04,799
and so she said,
"take the body there."
1114
01:10:04,801 --> 01:10:06,968
And so that's
where we went next.
1115
01:10:07,971 --> 01:10:10,238
We walked in and the first
thing we walk along this hall
1116
01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:12,507
and the first thing we see, we
see a sign for anatomy department,
1117
01:10:12,509 --> 01:10:13,675
which is what we're looking for
1118
01:10:13,677 --> 01:10:16,911
and we see this doorway
that has, uh, two skeletons,
1119
01:10:16,913 --> 01:10:19,914
both of which have what
appear to be ping pong balls
1120
01:10:19,916 --> 01:10:23,551
in the eye sockets and
on top of it there's a sign,
1121
01:10:23,553 --> 01:10:25,987
appears to all but made
out of human bones.
1122
01:10:25,989 --> 01:10:30,091
Um... which is like, "okay,
that's a little Addams family."
1123
01:10:32,896 --> 01:10:35,663
Then we wanted
to see the records.
1124
01:10:35,665 --> 01:10:39,467
So they came back with just
this very, kind of thin dossier
1125
01:10:40,136 --> 01:10:43,905
and it showed they had
photocopies of his passport
1126
01:10:43,907 --> 01:10:46,674
and it also showed the
people who had dropped off
1127
01:10:46,676 --> 01:10:49,477
and taken the body was
people who worked for the hotel.
1128
01:10:51,181 --> 01:10:54,916
Where the body had been
in between? I don't know.
1129
01:10:54,918 --> 01:10:57,051
I would think it would
be a very strange thing
1130
01:10:57,053 --> 01:11:00,989
for a luxury hotel to bring
a body onto its premises,
1131
01:11:00,991 --> 01:11:04,325
but there's not very much
that's normal about this story.
1132
01:11:07,230 --> 01:11:11,933
Nobody's seen the body.
So is this really Gerald?
1133
01:11:11,935 --> 01:11:13,134
Nobody really knows for sure.
1134
01:11:13,136 --> 01:11:15,336
[Ryan] I'm not convinced
he faked his death,
1135
01:11:15,338 --> 01:11:17,839
but I'm also not
convinced that he's dead.
1136
01:11:17,841 --> 01:11:21,476
I'm 80% sure that he's dead.
1137
01:11:23,079 --> 01:11:25,079
75% sure.
1138
01:11:25,081 --> 01:11:27,048
You know, people just
don't believe that he's dead.
1139
01:11:27,050 --> 01:11:29,150
They wanna see a
picture, they want DNA.
1140
01:11:29,152 --> 01:11:32,320
Lawyers want the rcmp
to exhume the body
1141
01:11:32,322 --> 01:11:34,922
of quadrigacx
founder Gerald cotten.
1142
01:11:34,924 --> 01:11:38,960
[Amy] The now 76,000
creditors are pushing
1143
01:11:38,962 --> 01:11:43,665
the royal Canadian mounted
police to dig up Gerald's body
1144
01:11:43,667 --> 01:11:46,968
soon because it's already been
in the ground for over a year.
1145
01:11:48,972 --> 01:11:50,738
[David] If it isn't Gerry, then
1146
01:11:50,740 --> 01:11:53,541
it's obvious disappear
and fake your death
1147
01:11:53,543 --> 01:11:57,879
and if it is Gerry, then we have to
ask could he have been attacked?
1148
01:11:57,881 --> 01:11:59,480
Murdered? Poisoned?
1149
01:11:59,482 --> 01:12:02,150
I'm here with the crew
of the deadliest catch.
1150
01:12:02,152 --> 01:12:05,453
It's pretty stormy out here
and the wind is really picking up.
1151
01:12:07,824 --> 01:12:09,991
Gerry was definitely
very paranoid
1152
01:12:09,993 --> 01:12:12,026
as the public face
of an exchange.
1153
01:12:12,028 --> 01:12:14,228
He spoke at a
couple of conferences,
1154
01:12:14,230 --> 01:12:16,564
and he seemed very paranoid
about getting kidnapped.
1155
01:12:17,634 --> 01:12:18,999
I better get inside.
1156
01:12:19,135 --> 01:12:21,969
The captain's orders and he
said that it's just too rough out,
1157
01:12:21,971 --> 01:12:23,571
I could fall overboard.
1158
01:12:25,208 --> 01:12:27,608
[David] This is a
massive, massive scheme
1159
01:12:27,610 --> 01:12:30,211
that came unraveled
and you have to think,
1160
01:12:30,213 --> 01:12:33,948
how much money would
it take to kill Gerry cotten?
1161
01:12:34,517 --> 01:12:36,517
Would $200 million be enough?
1162
01:12:38,722 --> 01:12:41,422
I think Gerry is the only
one with the whole story.
1163
01:12:46,763 --> 01:12:49,130
[Amy] There's so many
open questions, you know?
1164
01:12:49,132 --> 01:12:55,570
It's just a beautiful example of the
rampant fraud and scams in the industry.
1165
01:12:57,207 --> 01:12:59,040
[Alexandra] People
are still convinced that,
1166
01:12:59,042 --> 01:13:00,641
you know, they took
the money and ran.
1167
01:13:00,643 --> 01:13:02,977
But I feel like after
that osc report came out
1168
01:13:02,979 --> 01:13:08,049
it's pretty clear that the money had
already been long spent. It's gone.
1169
01:13:16,693 --> 01:13:19,761
[Joe] My theory is they kind
of stumbled into a real business
1170
01:13:19,763 --> 01:13:22,530
because it coincided
with the bitcoin boom
1171
01:13:22,532 --> 01:13:24,599
and they had a functioning
exchange on their hands,
1172
01:13:24,601 --> 01:13:29,270
but in the end Gerry treated
it like one of his old scams.
1173
01:13:29,272 --> 01:13:33,040
[Alexandra] If you could interview
any one person, who would it be?
1174
01:13:33,176 --> 01:13:35,576
Probably Jen.
1175
01:13:37,013 --> 01:13:38,880
[David] What little
they've recovered
1176
01:13:38,882 --> 01:13:40,982
plus all of Jennifer robertson's
1177
01:13:40,984 --> 01:13:43,951
quadriga boats,
houses and so forth
1178
01:13:43,953 --> 01:13:47,422
will be sold and
redistributed to the creditors
1179
01:13:47,424 --> 01:13:49,190
and they'll get
cents on the dollar.
1180
01:13:49,192 --> 01:13:53,361
To find out that your husband wasn't
who you thought he was the whole time,
1181
01:13:53,930 --> 01:13:56,164
I mean, she gave
everything back, so...
1182
01:13:56,166 --> 01:13:58,599
I think the only thing she
kept was her wedding ring.
1183
01:13:58,601 --> 01:14:01,068
Yeah. It's sad.
1184
01:14:01,070 --> 01:14:04,539
[Amy] We know that the whole thing
was a fraud. Who else was involved?
1185
01:14:04,541 --> 01:14:07,575
2016, when patryn
steps out of the picture,
1186
01:14:07,577 --> 01:14:10,044
did patryn step
out of the picture?
1187
01:14:10,046 --> 01:14:12,980
Did they talk about the
exit scam with patryn?
1188
01:14:14,184 --> 01:14:16,984
How much he's involved
in it? We don't know.
1189
01:14:51,754 --> 01:14:55,957
I don't buy the story
that the money is gone.
1190
01:14:55,959 --> 01:15:00,695
There's somewhere around $100
million that's just unaccounted for.
1191
01:15:00,697 --> 01:15:02,463
Just, you know,
sent in directions
1192
01:15:02,465 --> 01:15:06,133
that are difficult to
continue following.
1193
01:15:09,439 --> 01:15:14,175
I, uh, I think that someone still
breathing, um, has control over it
1194
01:15:14,177 --> 01:15:17,879
and so long as that
person continues to breathe
1195
01:15:17,881 --> 01:15:20,281
there's a chance that
they make mistakes.
1196
01:15:22,752 --> 01:15:25,219
[Taylor] If all of the clues
that are on the Internet,
1197
01:15:25,221 --> 01:15:27,889
if all the insights
come from the Internet,
1198
01:15:27,891 --> 01:15:30,157
then the person that's
mostly left to solve it
1199
01:15:30,159 --> 01:15:35,129
is someone who really,
deeply understands the Internet.
1200
01:15:37,834 --> 01:15:39,000
[Tong] People are
looking for answers
1201
01:15:39,002 --> 01:15:41,102
and people want justice
and I think what most people
1202
01:15:41,104 --> 01:15:44,138
in the telegram group want
is not just their money back,
1203
01:15:44,140 --> 01:15:46,474
but they wanna
see justice served.
1204
01:15:47,076 --> 01:15:49,677
We cannot have a
$200 million fraud
1205
01:15:49,679 --> 01:15:51,646
just happen and everyone
go, "lol, whatever."
1206
01:15:51,648 --> 01:15:55,616
[Amber] It's not just regulation,
it has to be effective regulation
1207
01:15:55,618 --> 01:15:59,120
and part of it is I think we need
more and better enforcement.
1208
01:15:59,122 --> 01:16:01,756
If someone is getting
punched or stabbed or shot,
1209
01:16:01,758 --> 01:16:04,025
that's going to take precedence
1210
01:16:04,027 --> 01:16:07,395
over somebody losing a
few dollars or many dollars,
1211
01:16:07,797 --> 01:16:11,032
and I understand that,
1212
01:16:11,034 --> 01:16:13,935
but on some level if we
never investigate these things,
1213
01:16:13,937 --> 01:16:16,237
if we never prosecute
these things,
1214
01:16:16,239 --> 01:16:18,039
they're going to keep happening.
1215
01:16:18,041 --> 01:16:23,177
[Tense music playing]
1216
01:16:38,561 --> 01:16:43,264
[Upbeat music playing]
1217
01:16:43,266 --> 01:16:45,600
[Ryan] Oh, I hope he's
alive. Yeah, I hope so.
1218
01:16:45,602 --> 01:16:48,035
I hope he's alive and we get
him, and we get our money back
1219
01:16:48,037 --> 01:16:51,072
but a perfect world, I'd like
them to find Gerry cotten
1220
01:16:51,074 --> 01:16:53,174
sitting on a beach
and lock him up.
1221
01:16:56,579 --> 01:16:57,912
[Taylor] Where's
the money, Gerry?
1222
01:16:57,914 --> 01:16:59,880
Where's the money
and will we ever know?
1223
01:16:59,882 --> 01:17:01,682
♪ You think I was fooling you ♪
1224
01:17:01,684 --> 01:17:03,818
♪ well you're only
fooling yourself ♪
1225
01:17:03,820 --> 01:17:06,220
♪ cause I'm gone
with the money ♪
1226
01:17:09,258 --> 01:17:14,328
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
1227
01:17:15,131 --> 01:17:18,933
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
1228
01:17:20,870 --> 01:17:26,007
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
1229
01:17:26,776 --> 01:17:30,277
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
1230
01:17:44,093 --> 01:17:46,961
♪ You were looking
for the code ♪
1231
01:17:50,166 --> 01:17:52,433
♪ now you're in the hole ♪
1232
01:17:55,738 --> 01:17:58,339
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
1233
01:18:01,544 --> 01:18:04,412
♪ I'm gone with the money ♪
100854
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