Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Laptop of Crypto-Exchange Owner who Died with Keys to $137m Finally Cracked

posted by martyb on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the Sitting-on-the-beach,-earning-20%? dept.

Mykl writes:

Following on from an earlier story about the Canadian Crypto exchange whose owner died under suspicious circumstances with the keys to $137m of customers' assets, Business Insider Australia reports that some progress has been made[*] Spoiler alert: the funds are all gone.

The case has sparked numerous theories, including that he faked his own death and ran off with the cash. However, court-appointed auditor Ernst & Young was able to crack Cotten's laptop. What they found, according to an EY report dated March 1, the accounts had been emptied in April 2018, eight months before his death.[*]

[* Ed.'s Update/Correction -- FP]

[...] A court-appointed auditor, Ernst & Young, has secured Cotten’s laptop, home computer, USB keys and home computer. Using public blockchain records, it determined the digital wallets thought to contain millions were emptied in April, eight months before his death [...]

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Laptop of Crypto-Exchange Owner who Died with Keys to $137m Finally Cracked | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 44 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:41AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:41AM (#810981)

    From April 2014 to approximately April 2018, aggregate bitcoin month end balances
    in the Identified Bitcoin Cold Wallets ranged from a low of nil to a peak of
    approximately 2,776 bitcoin. The average aggregate month end balance over the
    four-year period was approximately 124 bitcoin. In April 2018, the remaining bitcoin
    in the Identified Bitcoin Cold Wallets was transferred out bringing the balances down
    to nil. Other than the Sixth Wallet, there have been no deposits into the Identified
    Bitcoin Cold Wallets since April 2018 except for the inadvertent transfer of bitcoin
    by the Applicants as disclosed in the First Report.

    They could have been moved to a new cold wallet based on this.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:53AM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday March 07 2019, @02:53AM (#810983)

    They could have been moved to a new cold wallet based on this.

    If the laptop held the coins' private keys, the only way to move them out to another cold wallet would be to record the exchange on the public blockchain.

    --
    Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @03:08AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @03:08AM (#810987)

      Yep, what is your point?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:30AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @04:30AM (#811011)

        I think his point is that there would be a trace of where they went in that pesky blockchain.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:01AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 07 2019, @05:01AM (#811028)

          Yep. So what does that show? It isn't hard to take a look...