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I’m willing to wager a decent sum of money that Gerald Cotten is not actually dead, but has rather absconded with all of Quadriga’s holdings, and is currently i
by glitchc 8y ago
I’m willing to wager a decent sum of money that Gerald Cotten is not actually dead, but has rather absconded with all of Quadriga’s holdings, and is currently in hiding waiting for the buzz to die down.
- tyingq 8y agoIt's actually not a bad plan. I was sure someone would murder Karpeles, or that he would be rotting in jail forever. Neither happened, and most regular folks have no idea who he is. I believe 10 years is the worst he's potentially facing.
- Phlarp 8y agoHis personal bitcoin holdings have appreciated substantially in the time since Mt. Gox imploded too.
- solotronics 8y agoI suspect Carpeles made a deal with a group in Japan who are keeping him safe for some exorbitant sum of money.
- krapp 8y agoThey made him an offer he couldn't refuse?
- HarryHirsch 8y agoThus both sides benefit from the trade.
- Lordarminius 8y agoSame here. Most suspicious element of the whole case was the claim that he died from Crohn's disease (a condition that has a 3% mortality rate) and the lack of a body. WHERE IS THE BODY? I call b.s. Cotten is alive
- robbiep 8y agoUsing ‘a 3% mortality rate’ is not a very accurate way of conveying the burden of disease of a chronic condition such as crohns. People can be fine for ages, have stable disease, then experience a flare up, and if they have a perforation and ignore the symptoms, or are unable to access top line medical care (both likely in this situation) then death within 1-2 days is 100% possible.
- tyingq 8y agoI guess you could think maybe he went to India for some off the books risky surgery for his Crohn's and died on the table. Not sure if that's less believable than the theory he's still alive though.
- Laforet 8y agoHe supposedly died in a region rife with fake death schemes. https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/02/06/ceo-who-held-150m-in-crypto-died-in-a-region-known-for-having-a-fake-death-mafia/ https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/02/06/ceo-who-held-150m-in-cryp...
- robocat 8y ago> 3% mortality rate Actually no one knows the lifetime and annual mortality rates very well: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856159/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856159/
- jpatokal 8y agoCrohn's plus acute gastroenteritis (food poisoning). Delhi Belly is ubiquitous in India and can get pretty gnarly: my wife got dysentery on her first visit, and I'm not sure what would have happened without prompt diagnosis and antibiotics.
- GordonS 8y agoI've never heard of receiving antibiotics for dysentery? I've been to India numerous times, and have had dysentery a few times. Once was pretty bad, essentially rendering me bed (and toilet) - ridden for a couple of days. Never once would I have considered seeking medical attention for it. Unless you're vulnerable for some reason, I'm not sure anything can really be done about it.
- matthewwiese 8y agoThis theory, although fantastical, appears to fall in line with what little is known about Cotten. The kind of person to run a quarter-billion dollar operation solely from their laptop, I would think is certainly liable to pull a stunt like this. What's more interesting, however, is that the converse situation is equally likely: that the supposed ignorance of Cotten played up in the reporting of this story by the media plays absolutely in his favor. Would you trade appearing a fool to "get away with" something like this? If I were to have unrestricted access to $250M and woke up on the wrong side of the bed one day (or just a bad day in traffic, even) it would take little to flip a switch in my head and think, to Hell with all this, let's skedaddle! However, I am way too much of a paranoiac to do this without absolutely ruining my QOL after the fact, hah. I suppose situations like this is why we have the Two-man Rule for nuclear launches, &c. Keep those delusions in check!
- jacobush 8y ago”Two-man Rule for nuclear launches”. You would think, right?
- Mvandenbergh 8y agoThe two-man rule only applies to the launch officers, not to the launch authority (president or his successor).
- hi5eyes 8y ago“boating accident”
- Deimorz 8y agoI also think he's probably not dead, but I don't think he absconded with the holdings. I think it's a slightly different situation: there aren't any significant holdings left, and haven't been for a while. I think he already spent/lost almost everything they had, expecting that crypto would go up and everything would work out. Then it went down and stayed down, his plans blew up, and he knew he was screwed and could never pay the users back. That is, I don't think it's an exit scam, I think it's a desperate attempt to hide a massive failure in running the exchange. The "we can't access the cold wallets any more" was intended to be a believable excuse that would explain why they couldn't return people's money.
- pjc50 8y agoThe eternal bitcoin question: malice or incompetence?
- sxafo 8y agoProbably a some mixture of both. Or at least reckless disregard.
- newsbinator 8y agoNever attribute to bitcoin that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
- spookthesunset 8y agoConsidering the whole ecosystem is a rich tapestry of scammers scamming scammers.... the answer to your question is "yes".
- msh 8y agoWell && is also possible instead of ||
- pjc50 8y agoAh, of course - what if he stole the cryptocurrency then accidentally died while being the sole holder of the passwords? Oh well, unrecoverability is a feature, as people keep reminding us.
- tim333 8y agoThe Globe and Mail flew reporters out to India to chat to the doctors and hospital and it seems he did die - https://outline.com/MS67gd https://outline.com/MS67gd In further goings on it seems: >The co-founder of troubled cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is a convicted felon who served time in the United States for his role in an online identity-theft ring 'Michael Patryn', who changed his name and had a nose job https://outline.com/TdWDgM https://outline.com/TdWDgM My guess is Cotten died and the latter is trying to keep the money
- glitchc 8y agoI read this article. It’s certainly possible. Did Michael/Omar travel to India with Cotten on the trip that Cotten died?
- virtualwhys 8y ago> Did Michael/Omar travel to India with Cotten on the trip that Cotten died? Given that Cotton and his wife were in India largely for their honeymoon (and secondarily to celebrate the opening of the orphange they in part funded), it's highly unlikely that his former business associate would have traveled to India with them. If you read the 2nd linked article Patryn claims that he left the company around 2016 after a falling out.
- 8bitsrule 8y agoI smelled an odor when I first read about the 'orphanage'. Awww, how nice. Today I read the gift's details, and the odor's stronger. "Mr. Cotten’s money, however, did not buy an orphanage. It bought materials, but Mr. Cherukupalli had to arrange the construction himself. And the materials were insufficient – there was enough for walls and furnishings, but not enough.... Mr. Cherukupalli began to accumulate more debt as he secured labour and additional materials."
- 52-6F-62 8y agoWhoa I didn’t catch this. Thanks for posting it.
- elorant 8y agoSo how do you cash $250M in crypto?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tluyben2 8y agoVery, very slowly.