TL;DR: Defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX’s case might be moved to Toronto. Court-appointed monitor, leading accounting firm Ernst & Young requested a change of venue to reportedly better serve mounting document and law enforcement requests.

Ernst & Young Asks QuadrigaCX Case Be Moved to Toronto

The once largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, QuadrigaCX, began 2019 inauspiciously, as news of its founder and CEO, Gerald Cotten’s then-mysterious death, kept under wraps for more than a month prior, made headlines around the world. It did for obvious reasons, but soon gathered its own conspiratorial steam as facts eeked out.

Cotten, newly married and relatively young (30), honeymooned in India — later revealed as part of a charity campaign. There, he would die suddenly from complications of Crohn’s disease. It didn’t help matters that particular part of the country was famous for faking death certificates, nor how Cotten had revised his Last Will and Testament just weeks before — perhaps standard for a newly married man, but increasingly worrisome as the exchange’s financial predicament became clearer.

A cast of shady characters surrounded the running of QuadrigaCX, as it turned out, and the exchange was thought to be in dire financial straits before Cotten’s death. Those basics, along with Cotten having the only access to the company’s private keys now lost, sent just about everyone involved into a tizzy. Where is the money? Was Cotten really dead (bureaucratic snafus delayed a formal death certificate, only adding to wilder theories)? Is this just an elaborate take on a classic exit scam?

The exchange soon filed for bankruptcy protection while also facing a Royal Canadian Mounted Police financial crime investigation, two processes demanding a great deal of time and care to find out exactly what happened to millions of dollars. Famed accounting firm Ernst & Young was eventually appointed official monitor of the exchange, which now must answer to “four active law enforcement or regulatory investigations,” the Globe and Mail reported. Tens of thousands of users are left without access to more than $200 million. It’s even proving a little overwhelming for the court-appointed monitor, who now wants the case moved closer to Toronto in order “to comply with numerous requests from law enforcement and regulatory agencies that are based primarily in Ontario,” a report revealed.

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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