The Nova Scotia Supreme Court has granted Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX temporary creditor protection by issuing a 30-day to prevent any lawsuits against the company from moving forward. The order was granted to give QuadrigaCX time to search for a way to access $250 million CAD in customer funds that the company has been unable to recover since the December death of founder Gerald Cotton, CBC .
Reports have indicated that Cotton was the only person with access to the exchange’s cold offline storage systems that protected funds from hacking, and the company’s team has been unsuccessful in its attempts to gain access to those wallets since his death. He was also apparently the only person who knew how the company’s cold storage system worked.
To further complicate the company’s efforts to recover ’ funds, Cotton’s widow has been unable to access her late husband’s encrypted laptop since he never shared the password. A consultant is reportedly working to gain access now but has thus far been unsuccessful in those efforts. That laptop will now be delivered to creditors’ lawyers and then handed over to a monitor appointed by the court.
Meanwhile, about $70 million in fiat currency has also been beyond the company’s reach due to banking issues. Unfortunately, reports suggest that some of the exchange’s users have continued to deposit funds into their QuadrigaCX accounts.
About 115,000 have been left without access to their funds. According to CBC, the company’s lawyers told the court that the company may end up being sold to ensure that its debts are paid.
Published at Wed, 06 Feb 2019 01:03:05 +0000
