Customers ask to exhume body of CEO who died in India with password for bitcoins worth $190mn

Toronto: As the mystery deepens around the death of Gerald Cotten, CEO of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX, now lawyers for customers have asked police to exhume the body of Cotten to recover about $190 million in Bitcoin which were locked in an online device after his death.

A letter sent by law firm Miller Thomson to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) asks for the authorities to dig up and examine the body of Gerald Cotten, The Guardian reported on Friday.

"The purpose of this letter is to request, on behalf of the Affected Users, that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (the 'RCMP'), conduct an exhumation and post-mortem autopsy on the body of Gerald Cotten to confirm both its identity and the cause of death given the questionable circumstances surrounding Mr. Cotten's death and the significant losses of Affected Users," the letter reads.

As per report, citing "decomposition concerns", lawyers requested the exhumation be completed no later than Spring 2020.

Gerald Cotten, 30, died abruptly in December 2018 while on honeymoon in Jaipur, India, with his wife, Jennifer Robertson.

Reportedly, the will specifically states that his wife Robertson was authorised to access his digital assets and "obtain, access, modify, delete and control (his) passwords and other electronic credentials".

Earlier, Cotten's widow said in the affidavit posted online that the laptop that Cotten used to run the currency exchange is encrypted.

The company also hired an investigator to see if any information could be retrieved but ongoing efforts have had only "limited success in recovering a few coins" and some information from Cotten's computer and phone.

Cotten's body was repatriated to Canada and a funeral was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.