The legal team representing victims of bankrupt digital asset exchange QuadrigaCX are demanding authorities in Canada exhume the body of the platform’s founder.
The exchange’s former users say they want an exhumation due to the “questionable circumstances” that allegedly led to the death of the QuadrigaCX founder.
Gerald Cotten reportedly passed away in 2018 in India from health complications arising from Crohn’s disease.
After Cotten’s death, QuadrigaCX’s management claimed that it couldn‘t access a large amount of digital currency reserves held by the exchange on behalf of its users.
The company alleged that Cotten was the only one who held the passwords to the exchange’s cryptocurrency wallets holding $137 million in digital assets.
The 30-year-old’s sudden death led to the abrupt shutdown of the popular Canadian crypto exchange which reportedly had 115,000 active traders.
Following the announcement of Cotten’s death and the loss of millions in crypto assets, rumors swirled that Cotten had staged a hoax in order to run off with the funds.
Lawyers representing former traders said in a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that their clients want an exhumation and post-mortem autopsy to be carried out on Cotten’s body “to confirm both its identity and the cause of death.”
The legal team claims that the information from the bankruptcy proceedings “further highlights the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr. Cotten is in fact deceased.”