A major Bitcoin trader with sole access to $137 million in crypto funds mysteriously died while on vacation. Some outraged users are asking for his body to be exhumed to prove he's actually dead.

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Gerald Cotten.

• Users of popular Canadian cryptocurrency exchange platform Quadriga CX have requested that police exhume the body of late founder Gerald Cotten in order to determine if the 30-year-old is really dead.
• In January, the company announced on Facebook that Cotten had died suddenly in December 2018 due to "complications with Crohn's disease" while traveling in India.
• Cotten was the only person with access to digital wallets containing C$180 million ($137 million) in cryptocurrency, according to the BBC.
• Following his death, the company was forced to close and filed an application for creditor protection with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February.
• Soon after questions surrounding Cotten's mysterious death and rumors of mismanagement within the company began to swirl.
• Lawyers representing users of the bankrupt platform wrote a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday requesting a post-mortem autopsy on Cotten in order to confirm his identity and cause of death "given the questionable circumstances" surrounding his death.
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Users of popular Canadian cryptocurrency exchange platform Quadriga CX have requested that police exhume the body of late founder Gerald Cotten in order to determine if the 30-year-old is really dead.

Lawyers representing users of the now-bankrupt platform wrote a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Friday requesting a post-mortem autopsy on Cotten in order to confirm his identity and cause of death "given the questionable circumstances" surrounding his death.

In January, the company announced on Facebook that Cotten had died suddenly in December 2018 due to "complications with Crohn's disease" while traveling in India. Cotten was the only person with access to digital wallets containing C$180 million ($137 million) in cryptocurrency, according to the BBC.

Following Cotten's death, the company was forced to close and filed an application for creditor protection with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February. The company said at the time that it was working "extensively to address our liquidity issues, which include attempting to locate and secure our very significant cryptocurrency reserves held in cold wallets."

The company had roughly 115,000 users at the time, according to the BBC. The company was believed to be one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada before its collapse.

In filing for creditor protection, the court in February appointed an independent third-party monitor to oversee proceedings. In April, the company announced that the court had issued a Termination and Bankruptcy Assignment Order.

But questions surrounding Cotten's mysterious death and rumors of mismanagement within the company began to swirl.

In June 2019, the monitor, EY, said in a report that the company's infrastructure "appears to have been significantly flawed from a financial reporting and operational control perspective."

"Activities were largely directed by a single individual, Mr. Cotten, and as a result, typical segregation of duties and basic internal controls did not appear to exist," the monitor said.

The report added that user funds held by the company "appear to have been used by Quadriga for a number of purposes other than to fund User withdrawals."

Reuters

FILE PHOTO: A collection of Bitcoin (virtual currency) tokens are displayed in this picture illustration

The monitor said that the company also failed to ensure "adequate safeguard procedures were in place" to make sure passwords and other "critical" data were accessible to other executives in the case of a critical event.

Cotten also appears to have personally taken out "substantial funds" from the platform, which the monitor was unable to locate, it said.

Lawyers for Cotten's widow told the BBC that she is " heartbroken to learn of this request" by users of the site, and said her husband's death "should not be in doubt."

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