Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions

Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions

  • Downloads:1756
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2022-01-21 10:51:07
  • Update Date:2025-09-07
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Jennifer Robertson
  • ISBN:1443463906
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

She met the man of her dreams and suddenly had it all。 Then, in one fateful night, she lost everything, and the nightmare began。

Jennifer Robertson was working hard to build a life for herself from the ashes of her first marriage。 Still only twenty-six, she swiped right on a dating app and met Gerry Cotten, a man she would not normally have considered—too young and not her type—but found she’d met her match。 Eccentric but funny and kind, Cotten turned out to be a bitcoin wizard who quickly amassed substantial wealth through his company, Quadriga。 The couple travelled the world, first-class all the way, while Cotten worked on his multitude of encrypted laptops。

Then, while the couple was on their honeymoon in India, opening an orphanage in their name, Gerry fell ill and died in a matter of hours。 Jennifer was consumed by grief and guilt, but that was only the beginning。 It turned out that Gerry owed $250 million to Quadriga customers, and all the passwords to his encrypted virtual vaults, hidden on his many laptops, had died with him。 Jennifer was left with more than one hundred thousand investors looking for their money, and questions, suspicions and accusations spiraling dangerously out of control。

The Quadriga scandal touched off major investment and criminal investigations, not to mention Internet rumors circulating on dark message boards, including claims that Gerry had faked his own death and that his wife was the real mastermind behind a sophisticated sting operation。 While Jennifer waited for a dead man’s switch e-mail that would probably never come, it became clear that Cotten had gambled away about $100 million of the funds entrusted to him for investment in his many schemes, leaving Robertson holding the bag。

'BITCOIN WIDOW' is 'Catch Me If You Can' meeting a widow betrayed, a life of fairy-tale romance and private jets torched by duplicity, as Jennifer Robertson tries to reset her life in the wake of one of the biggest investments scandals of the digital age。

Download

Reviews

Grace S。

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read an advanced reading copy of this memoir。 There was so much in the news about the QuadrigaCX case, but it was very enlightening to read about it from Robertson’s perspective。 You will have a hard time putting this book down。 I highly recommend!

Clairelouloves

I really enjoyed this memoir about a multimillion dollar bitcoin company。 It was intriguing and shocking。 Looking back, I realised I had read about this case without taking too much notice as, like many, I had no clue about cryptocurrency。 I was fascinated by her story and found her to be credible and honest。 The writing was evenly paced。 4。5 stars。 Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this arc。

Amy Castor

In January 2019, QuadrigaCX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, went belly up after its founder, Gerald Cotten, died under bizarre circumstances in India。 Roughly $200 million (Canadian) in customer funds disappeared along with him。 Investigations revealed that Cotten had been running Quadriga like a Ponzi, treating customer deposits like his own personal slush fund。 The timing of his death was peculiar, as the clock was ticking on his Ponzi。 Cotten was struggling to keep up with cus In January 2019, QuadrigaCX, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Canada, went belly up after its founder, Gerald Cotten, died under bizarre circumstances in India。 Roughly $200 million (Canadian) in customer funds disappeared along with him。 Investigations revealed that Cotten had been running Quadriga like a Ponzi, treating customer deposits like his own personal slush fund。 The timing of his death was peculiar, as the clock was ticking on his Ponzi。 Cotten was struggling to keep up with customer withdrawals。 Instead of getting caught and going to jail, he died and went to heaven。 Although some still think he faked his demise。Six months prior to his death, Cotten wed Jennifer Robertson, a woman he met four years earlier。 A month before he died, he signed a detailed will leaving everything to her。 When Quadriga’s customers realized they had been duped, they had questions — lots of questions — and some of those question were directed at Robertson, the person closest to Cotten when he passed。During Quadriga’s bankruptcy hearings, Robertson refused interviews with the press。 Little was known about her。 Now she has a book: “Bitcoin Widow: Love, Betrayal and the Missing Millions。” The 330-page memoir comes out January 18 and is available for pre-order on Amazon。 HarperCollins is the publisher。Robertson did not pen the memoir alone。 She enlisted the help of Canadian journalist Stephen Kimber。 Kimber actually did a pretty good job piecing all of this together, but despite his professionalism, the book is still a slog。 I don’t recommend it。Robertson lacks the depth and introspection you might expect from someone who was “betrayed。” She also lacks empathy。 The book is mostly about her feeling wronged by the press — e。g。 me。 She treats the 76,000 Quadriga customers who Cotten hurt only as an afterthought。 Here is what she wants us to believe: She wants us to believe that Cotten is really dead。 (Jilted investors at one point wanted his body exhumed to prove this wasn’t a massive exit scam。) She wants us to believe she truly loved Cotton, who she describes as her “soul mate。” She also wants us to believe she had no inkling of the massive fraud her partner was committing — and she was benefiting from。“The possibility that Gerry had committed fraud never even crossed my mind,” she writes。The book contains mostly what we already know from court documents and investigations。 It also includes details most readers could probably care less about like she lost her virginity in tenth grade, her mother worked at a post office, and she is obsessed with the number eight。 Coincidentally, the first chapter opens on December 8, 2018。 On that day, Robertson and Cotten are on their honeymoon in Jaipur, India。 After they check into the opulent Oberoi Rajvilas hotel for $800 (Canadian) a night, Cotten, age 30, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s before the pair met, has come down with a horrendous belly ache。 All told, 2018 was a bad year for Quadriga。 It was the year the wheels started coming off。 In January, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) froze $30 million (Canadian) in Quadriga funds。 On top of that, as the price of bitcoin plummeted that year, more and more people were exiting their positions and trying to get their cash off the exchange。 Little did they know, there was hardly any cash left。Robertson gets Cotten into the upscale Fortis hospital where his condition worsens。 The following day, he goes into cardiac arrest twice and dies。 She is with him through the entire event and is tasked with getting his body back to Halifax, where they were living before things fell apart。 A closed-casket funeral is held and Cotten’s body is put into the frozen earth。 His body was severely swollen, too swollen for a public viewing, Robinson says。The book jumps back and forth in time as Robertson relives the trauma of losing the alleged love of her life。 I have to admit, it is difficult picturing Cotten as a catch outside of all of his money, as charming as many people said he was。 Looking at Youtube videos he posted, he appears immature。 In one, he is holding his brother Brad upside-down in 2012。 “Have you ever tried drinking water upside down?” Brad says, the two of them in fits of giggles。 This is the man child Robertson supposedly fell in love with。Anyway, as Robertson recounts her life, she takes us through her on-again off-again relationship with Jacob Forgeron, who she met in 10th grade and later married。 The marriage ends in divorce, and soon after, she meets Cotten on Tinder, a popular dating app。 They are both 26。Cotten founded Quadriga in late 2013 with business partner Michael Patryn, who turns out to be ex-con Omar Dhanani, who spent 18 months behind bars in the US, before being sent back to Canada。 Robinson claims she never actually met Patryn and had no notion of his shady past — or that Cotten and Patryn went way back。 “Even though they were business partners at Quadriga, for instance, I never met Michael Patryn face to face, or anyone else connected to the company that was at the centre of Gerry’s work life,” she writes。The entire book is like this — Robertson presenting shocking facts about Cotten and Quadriga and her putting a spit and shine on it to polish up her reputation。 Essentially, she denies knowing anything about the inner workings of the business。 The book title should have been: “I Know Nothing!”Cotten and Robertson lived together starting in May 2015。 They already had their pet name, calling each other “Booboo。” Up until that time, she made her living mainly as a bartender and waiting tables。  Quadriga could not get banking — banks don’t like dealing with crypto companies due to the high risk of money laundering。 To get around that, Robertson describes how Cotten hired freelancers and had them set up bank accounts, so they could process funds on behalf of Quadriga。 She herself set up Robertson Consulting Nova to process money for Cotten。 “Gerry would deposit money destined for clients into my corporate account and then send me lists of their names and email addresses and the amount I was to send each of them。 I’d either send the funds by wire or e-transfer。”Robertson earned an extra $1,000 (Canadian) a month this way — but oddly, it didn’t seem to trigger any alarm bells for her。 She stopped processing payments, she said, after they moved from Toronto to Halifax, where they bought their first home together in 2016。By then Quadriga was using “commercial payment processors” — her term for shadow banks that basically set up a network of bank accounts to funnel money to and from Quadriga customers。 She said she knew nothing of Quadriga’s clients beyond what she needed to know to send them money。 Cash is another way to get around banks and Cotten dealt with lots of it。 “Gerry continued to deal in cash over all the time we were together, but the piles grew bigger and bigger,” Robinson said。 Cotten was doing business with Adam O’Brien who ran a Bitcoin ATM company in Canada。 Cotten supplied O’Brien with crypto, and O’Brien, in turn, brought Cotten suitcases full of bills from the sale of bitcoin — $20 million (Canadian) in total, enough to raise most people’s eyebrows, but not Robertson’s。“I understood from Gerry that cryptocurrency was still new, so old-school, conventional bankers were often suspicious of it。 That was one reason why Gerry said he worked so hard to verify the bona fides of his customers。”The bona fides of his customers? Bitcoin ATMs are essentially nothing more than street corner money laundering machines。 They charge high transaction fees, which criminals don’t mind paying for the simple reason that bitcoin ATMs generally don’t require identity checks up to certain amounts, particularly in Canada, up until recently。 When Robertson was searching for new employment, Gerry suggested they take up their newfound wealth and invest in real estate。 Robertson setup Robertson Nova, her residential property management company (not to be confused with her payment processing business), and started buying up real estate。 Eventually, the pair owned 16 rental properties to the tune of $7。5 million (Canadian)。 Robertson brought in her stepfather Tom Beazley to help manage the properties and got herself a personal assistant named Tanya Reid, who would also drink beer with her and listen to her woes when needed。Apparently, Beazley and Reid were doing most of the heavy lifting for Robertson’s company — which she called a “financial success。” Reid also became the couple’s errand girl。 “In the end, Tanya became a primary personal assistant for Gerry, picking up laundry and running errands, while Gerry continued to run the business as he always had — alone, from inside his laptop。”Robertson tells us she didn’t care about the money。 However, she clearly didn’t mind spending it either。 The book details countless vacations she took with Cotten — a cruise around South Africa, a wedding celebration in a castle in Scotland for the extended family, a mini-honeymoon in Amsterdam, another cruise around Australia, and on and on。 They couple bought a yacht, a small island, a vacation home, and chartered a private plane。 The entire relationship was one big vacation。It’s a wonder that Cotten, who ran Quadriga as a one-man show from his laptop after 2016 when Patryn supposedly stepped away, got any real work done at all。 Actually, we now know he wasn’t actually working so much as spending and gambling away other people’s money。It is also a wonder that Robertson, who talks at length about her curiosity for the world, had no curiosity whatsoever about Cotten’s business or the piles of cash coming in and going out of their home。 At one point, she describes delivering an envelope of cash to one of Quadriga’s customers herself。 After Cotten died, Robertson’s fantasy world came apart at the seams, and she was hounded by journalists。 She was shocked and offended by the innuendo and suspicions。 I’m the only journalist she specifically calls out in the book by name: “Amy Castor, a freelance journalist, who ‘focuses on cryptocurrencies and financial fraud,’ would later add more fuel to this fire when she described me as ‘moving aggressively to protect her newly acquired assets。’” That statement was absolutely true, by the way。 Even before the accountants, courts and lawyers moved in to clean up the mess that was Quadriga, Robertson was moving property into her own name to protect it from creditors。 In the end, however, she had to hand over nearly everything to Ernst and Young, the court appointed monitor and bankruptcy trustee。 Initially, she proposed to keep $5 million (Canadian) — money that never would have ended up in her name had Cotten not stolen millions from his customers。 She also wanted to keep her engagement band, worth $80,000 (Canadian)。 Here is her reasoning for finally opting to give it up without a fight: “In practical terms, selling it would put the smallest of dents in the huge losses [Quadriga investors] already suffered。 But symbolically, taking that ring off my finger offered a small measure of vengeance for all that Gerry had done to harm them。” What Robinson doesn’t seem to understand is that none of this money was hers to begin with。 In the end, she was allowed to keep her wedding band, $90,000 (Canadian) in cash, her $20,000 (Canadian) retirement fund, her Jeep Cherokee, and some other personal belongings。  She mourned dead Gerry by writing to him: “Oh, sweetheart, I only now understand just how much stress you were under 。 。 。 I am so sorry。 This must have been awful for you。” It’s a shame she never wrote any such heartfelt letters to Quadriga customers。 At least one of whom lost his entire life savings。At one point, during the court proceedings that followed Quadriga’s shuttering, Robertson went to Aruba to escape the pressure and tried to commit suicide by swallowing too many Ativan。 She managed to save herself by calling an ambulance。 This is the first I had heard of her suicide attempt。Robertson is now moving on with her life。 She moved into a cabin owned by her family, taught English online for a bit, and went back to school。 She had two relationships after Cotten, and neither of them ended well because she “still had feelings for Gerry。” I’ve heard from a source that she is now in yet another relationship and is heavily pregnant。 Cotten has been dead for three years now。If you have been following the Quadriga saga, you won’t find much new in “Bitcoin Widow。” Robertson is a hard person to feel sympathy for。 She is getting on with her life, sure, but there are still 76,000 Quadriga customers waiting for the bankruptcy courts to return a fraction of their losses。 They are struggling to get on with their lives too。 。。。more

David Gerard

Jennifer Robertson is the widow of Gerald Cotten, the serial scammer who founded the QuadrigaCX crypto exchange and stole between CAD$190 million and CAD$250 million of his customers’ money。 I obtained — was *not* given promotionally — a draft proofreading copy of her autobiography。 The book is out in January 2022。 I don’t recommend it。It’s utterly unclear to me why this book exists。 It’s 334 pages of Robertson justifying herself。 But the money’s gone, and it’s not coming back。 Jennifer was allo Jennifer Robertson is the widow of Gerald Cotten, the serial scammer who founded the QuadrigaCX crypto exchange and stole between CAD$190 million and CAD$250 million of his customers’ money。 I obtained — was *not* given promotionally — a draft proofreading copy of her autobiography。 The book is out in January 2022。 I don’t recommend it。It’s utterly unclear to me why this book exists。 It’s 334 pages of Robertson justifying herself。 But the money’s gone, and it’s not coming back。 Jennifer was allowed only her wedding ring, her car and some personal effects and has to work a normal job now。 There’s no litigation in motion。 The Quadriga trails are all cold。 Why did Robertson think this was a good idea?Robertson is not interesting。 Nobody will pick up this book for any reason other than the collapse of Quadriga — but there’s nothing here that will change your mind about Quadriga or its collapse。Jennifer meets Bitcoin entrepreneur Gerry Cotten on Tinder, a year after he and his friend Michael Patryn started a Bitcoin exchange called Quadriga Coin Exchange, or QuadrigaCX。 Jennifer likes Gerry and moves in with him。 Gerry pays for everything with his Bitcoin money。We get Robertson’s sense of Cotten — a standoffish opinionated nerd, who doesn’t like people much, but is very charming and much loved when he does get out and meet people。 Cotten encrypts everything; Robertson doesn’t understand the technical details。“So the truth is, I didn’t know all that much about Gerry or his business。” Well, so much for the one reason we’re reading this。 Robertson stresses repeatedly how she didn’t know so many things。Quadriga can’t get real banking because it’s dodgy as hell — I mean, because banks don’t understand Bitcoin。 Robertson establishes Robertson Nova Consulting to be one of Quadriga’s “payment processors” — let none say “money mule。” She also helps Cotten mail envelopes full of cash to customers — in the manner of absolutely zero reputable financial businesses, but quite a lot of criminal enterprises。 “Should I have asked more questions?” Robertson asks。Robertson lets Cotten run everything in their financial lives。 “‘Here,’ I said to him at some point。 ‘Here are the passwords to my accounts。 You take over。’”Cotten and Patryn fail to list Quadriga on the public stock markets in 2015。 They split in 2016, and Cotten runs the exchange all by himself。(Robertson finds out in 2019, when Quadriga has collapsed, that Patryn and his partner Lovie Horner together still owned more of Quadriga than Cotten did。 Robertson has still never met Patryn face to face。)Robertson and Cotten travel the world。 Cotten wins $900,000 in online gambling, supposedly, and puts it into Robertson Nova Property Management, so Robertson can buy houses to rent out。 She emphasises how she was a nice landlord, not like those nasty landlords。Everything’s going swimmingly, they’re travelling the world and spending money like water。 But CIBC freezes $28 million of Quadriga money in early 2018, and Cotten is stressed。 Bitcoin is crashing, and the customers want their money back。Cotten gets more stressed, and sicker and sicker from Crohn’s disease。 Robertson and Cotten go to India。 Cotten dies。 A panic ensues as everyone tries to recover Quadriga from Cotten’s locked laptop。 After a month of Cotten being dead and Quadriga not giving anyone their money or cryptos, Robertson finally admits publicly that Cotten has died。Robertson details all the ridiculously sketchy-looking stuff she did in the month after Cotten’s death, claims her complete innocence in all regards, then calls the doubters who pointed out the sketchiness “conspiracy theorists。”Crypto journalist Amy Castor gets a mention。 I think she’s the only critic of the farrago of nonsense at the time who’s called out by name:> Amy Castor, a freelance journalist who “focused on cryptocurrencies and financial fraud,” would later add more fuel to this fire when she described me as “moving aggressively to protect her newly acquired assets。”That was because Robertson was doing literally that thing — putting Cotten’s assets into her own name before the court had been called in。 I’d call that relevant to the public interest, given Cotten’s exchange had just collapsed with a $200 million hole in the accounts。 Robertson doesn’t seem to think so。In fact, the quote is from a blog post by Castor about one of the Ernst & Young CCAA monitor reports — the stage before bankruptcy — referencing a story in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald about how Robertson “took her deceased husband’s name from the ownership of the four properties, worth a combined $1。1 million, then took out collateral mortgages on all four in favour of a trust of which she is a trustee, and finally transferred ownership of at least two of those properties to that trust。” But Robertson goes after the blogger for talking about it。The doubters turn out to be correct — Quadriga was a scam all the way down。 Cotten was a serial fraudster, who had joined with Patryn to run Ponzi schemes from age 15。 He lied to Robertson, a whole lot, about everything to do with Quadriga and his entire personal business history。 The stress of the Quadriga bankruptcy drives Robertson to the point of attempting suicide。Robertson comes across as deeply incurious — but only about the tricky details。 She paints herself as very interested in everything in the world — except the details of her life partner, or of the business he runs that she participates in and they live off。 That bit, she just trusted him on。There’s a known phenomenon of confidence tricksters who completely fool their partners, often leaving their partner as the patsy for their crimes。 I don’t know if that was one of Cotten’s contingency plans, but that sort of relationship would help explain Robertson’s ridiculous incuriosity。Robertson comes across to me more as a fool than a co-conspirator, so I guess the book did its job。 I’m assuming that no checkable statement of fact in the book is a lie — ’cos you can bet the aggrieved creditors will be going over it with a fine-toothed comb。 Robertson is much more upset about journalists questioning her bona fides than she seems about the 76,000 people her husband ripped off。I wonder about things the book doesn’t mention。 I’m thinking of the famous photo of the stovetop with uncashed banker’s drafts on it — Quadriga customers sent Cotten money, and he didn’t even bother cashing it in for two years。 As if the retail exchange was just a façade, and the real business was to launder cryptos out — like a car wash with massive turnover, but no visible customers。Cotten supposedly took bitcoins from Quadriga and used them to trade altcoins on other exchanges。 Were Cotten’s altcoin gambling losses really him laundering bitcoins out for his real customers? Quadriga is known to have been used to cash in dirty bitcoins。 That stovetop is something I’d really like to ask Robertson about。The book fills in some details — though not nearly enough — of the Quadriga story。 But I don’t trust this narrator’s reliability。If you want a quick introductory summary of the story of QuadrigaCX, read the Vanity Fair article and the Ontario Securities Commission report— and not this book。If you’ve been closely following the saga of QuadrigaCX since the exchange’s collapse, I suppose this is a document you should read。 I thought I was that interested in Quadriga, but perhaps I’m not。 。。。more

Kimberly Smith

I am Jennifer's sister。 I have just read an advance copy of this book。 It is a page turner and well written。 It broke my heart all over again。 My family and I lived this beside her and again I marveled at her strength and resilience。 I do not know how she made it through this。 I also learned so much more myself and send her all the love and light as she continues her life journey。I promise。。。 you will look at the next news article you read very differently。 I know I no longer take them at face v I am Jennifer's sister。 I have just read an advance copy of this book。 It is a page turner and well written。 It broke my heart all over again。 My family and I lived this beside her and again I marveled at her strength and resilience。 I do not know how she made it through this。 I also learned so much more myself and send her all the love and light as she continues her life journey。I promise。。。 you will look at the next news article you read very differently。 I know I no longer take them at face value。 We must all try to walk a mile in someone else's shoes。 。。。more

Brandon Forsyth

Absolutely fascinating。 More to come when this releases into the wider world。

Ameema S。

I’m an Indigo employee, and I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Indigo, in exchange for my honest feedback。 Compulsively readable, and fast paced - this memoir was hard to put down。 I don’t recall hearing anything about this case, or Jennifer of Gerry when all this happened, so I came to this book with a bit of a blank slate。The story this book is centred around is salacious, and full of scandal and mystery - so I think people will really be intrigued by, and want to pick up th I’m an Indigo employee, and I received an advanced reading copy of this book from Indigo, in exchange for my honest feedback。 Compulsively readable, and fast paced - this memoir was hard to put down。 I don’t recall hearing anything about this case, or Jennifer of Gerry when all this happened, so I came to this book with a bit of a blank slate。The story this book is centred around is salacious, and full of scandal and mystery - so I think people will really be intrigued by, and want to pick up the book。 It was a quick read, and interesting enough that i look forward to talking about it more with people。 While the book was intriguing enough that I had a hard time putting it down, I did struggle a bit with this book。 Pretty immediately I was put off by Jennifer’s descriptions and explanations of their travels。 The way she describes different cultures, countries, and people kept rubbing me the wrong way。 Her descriptions of India, especially, were jarring and pretty harmful - at one point she describes the city scenes as “apocalyptic”。 Jennifer (& Gerry) both have quite a colonial, paternalistic attitude to travel, and towards people from other cultures and communities。 Despite their love of travel, it didn’t feel like all of their adventures and travels taught them any kind of empathy or cultural sensitivity - and that combined with their exorbitant spending, and coloured with the dark cloud of Gerry’s criminal activity, and the scandal that surrounded Jennifer made them both pretty unsympathetic and i likeable for me。There is also casual racism that’s skated by a couple of times - pretty much unaddressed, and definitely not condemned。 If i’m being honest, the writing was pretty mediocre。 I did read an advanced reading copy, so it’s possible it will have gone through some more edits by the time it comes out。I won’t speculate here on Jennifer’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the scandal, or in the criminal activity - and obviously this book is very much HER perspective on HER terms。 Obviously though - the goal is to sell books, and I think this book is going to keep people guessing, and speculating for a while。 。。。more

=^。^= Janet

Publication date: January 18, 2022Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book。 This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own。From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸。She met the man of her dreams and suddenly had it all。 Then, in one fateful night, she lost everything, and the nightmare beganJennifer Robertson was workin Publication date: January 18, 2022Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book。 This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own。From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸。She met the man of her dreams and suddenly had it all。 Then, in one fateful night, she lost everything, and the nightmare beganJennifer Robertson was working hard to build a life for herself from the ashes of her first marriage。 Still only twenty-six, she swiped right on a dating app and met Gerry Cotten, a man she would not normally have considered—too young and not her type—but found she’d met her match。 Eccentric but funny and kind, Cotten turned out to be a bitcoin wizard who quickly amassed substantial wealth through his company, Quadriga。 The couple travelled the world, first-class all the way, while Cotten worked on his multitude of encrypted laptops。Then, while the couple was on their honeymoon in India, opening an orphanage in their name, Gerry fell ill and died in a matter of hours。 Jennifer was consumed by grief and guilt, but that was only the beginning。 It turned out that Gerry owed $250 million to Quadriga customers, and all the passwords to his encrypted virtual vaults, hidden on his many laptops, had died with him。 Jennifer was left with more than one hundred thousand investors looking for their money, and questions, suspicions and accusations spiralling dangerously out of control。The Quadriga scandal touched off major investment and criminal investigations, not to mention Internet rumours circulating on dark message boards, including claims that Gerry had faked his own death and that his wife was the real mastermind behind a sophisticated sting operation。 While Jennifer waited for a dead man’s switch e-mail that would probably never come, it became clear that Cotten had gambled away about $100 million of the funds entrusted to him for investment in his many schemes, leaving Robertson holding the bag。Bitcoin Widow is Catch Me If You Can meeting a widow betrayed, a life of fairy-tale romance and private jets torched by duplicity, as Jennifer Robertson tries to reset her life in the wake of one of the biggest investments scandals of the digital age。My elderly mom and I had a conversation about Bitcoin and the digital currency market this past weekend and how it made little sense。。。I mean when you have money in a bank you know it is not a pile of cash with your name on it (at least in Canada and our federal "big six" banking system) but who knows in the USA? (lol) We agreed that money is mostly digital these days (who actually gets cash as a paycheque???) and that stocks are technically virtual but this whole Bitcoin thing is like the wild, wild, wild west!This book was fascinating to read and I feel for the author although I am not really understanding how she is liable for it all in the end? (That is like blaming Melania for Donald's screwups and insurrection at the Capitol。。but do we really think that she will visit him in prison?) It is a complicated subject that I am sure that a black hat hacker could fix if the government let any of them near those laptops 。。 it might take a while, but it might be better than nothing。 Roberston should not be left holding the bag。。。that is the one thing I decidedly took away from her excellently-written memoir that won't necessarily make you understand Bitcoin any better (or at all) but it is a fascinating story that I will recommend to friends, family, book clubs, my money guy who I have already told about the book and patrons alike。As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I simply adore emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube Millionaires/snowflakes / literally-like-overusers etc。 ") on Instagram and Twitter。。。 Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 💰💰💰💰💰 。。。more