Lawyers for clients who lost millions in the bankruptcy of the QuadrigaCX digital currency exchange have formally asked the RCMP to exhume the remains of the firm's founder.

In a letter posted to its website Friday, Toronto-based law firm Miller Thomson LLP asks the RCMP's Commercial Crimes Branch to conduct an autopsy on the body of Gerald Cotten to confirm both its identity and the cause of death.

The letter says there is a need for certainty around the question of whether "Mr. Cotten is in fact deceased" and it asks that the exhumation process be completed by the spring of 2020.

Cotten, who ran the exchange from his home outside of Halifax, died suddenly in December 2018 while travelling in India.

As the company's CEO and sole director, he was the only one who had access to the so-called cold wallets that were supposed to hold his customers' digital currency.

Lawyers and creditors are shown attending Nova Scotia Supreme Court in February 2019. QuadrigaCX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was seeking creditor protection following the sudden death of its founder and chief executive Gerald Cotten in December 2018. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

More than 76,000 unsecured creditors, virtually all of them QuadrigaCX clients, came forward to claim they are owed $214.6 million — $74.1 million in cash and $140.5 million in digital currency.

In a emailed statement, Richard Niedermayer, lawyer for Cotten's widow, Jennifer Robertson, said she is "heartbroken" to learn of the exhumation request.

"Gerry died on Dec. 9, 2018 in India," the statement says.

"It is not clear how the exhumation or an autopsy to confirm the cause of Gerry's death from complications arising from his Crohn's disease would assist the asset recovery process further."

In a settlement announced in October, Robertson and Cotten's estate agreed to return about $12 million in assets to help repay users of the exchange.

The assets included properties in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, a small aircraft, "luxury vehicles," a sailboat, investments, and cash, along with gold and silver coins.

An investigation by Ernst and Young found that the exchange had flawed financial reporting and that significant volumes of digital currency had been transferred to personal accounts controlled by Cotten.

It found losses from trading and fees in those accounts affected QuadrigaCX's reserves, while Cotten also created fake accounts to inflate revenue figures.

In a statement released at the time of the settlement, Robertson said that she wasn't aware of how her husband operated the business, or his appropriation of users funds.

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