If you’re anything like the Mother of Movies, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and blockchain technology are all a bit baffling. What’s even more mind-boggling is the thought that someone created a new form of currency. A new form of money that stands outside the reaches of government control. Created as a financial resource that is only ever able to be used, mined, and stored online. Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency have always seemed like an idea too good to be true. Netflix’s short documentary “Trust No One,” tells the story of one particular millionaire in this niche financial industry that was able to be scammed out of very large sums of money.
How To Mine Bitcoin
The world is full of people looking to make a quick buck. None, it seems, more than multimillionaire Gerry Cotten. Gerry is (or was depending on how you see it) the founder and CEO behind one of the most infamous and now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchanges QuadrigaCX. Alongside his co-founder Michael Patryn they together swindled thousands of customers.
The one-and-a-half-hour crime documentary maps out the rise and fall of this successful business venture while distancing itself from what most people dare to ask. Is Bitcoin just some mystical fantasy idea that doesn’t really exist? Is it any different from the currency the rest of the world is using? According to this one example spelled out in plain terms in “Trust No One,” the fact of the matter is, that Bitcoin might be easier to steal than regular money.
What director Luke Sewell does well here is explain how Bitcoin works. In almost a crash course complete with pictures that include moving arrows coming off them, we get an inside look into how cryptocurrency is used. We also get to see how people who form start-up companies in this way make money. Similar to banks, Bitcoin exchanges let you deposit and withdraw money. But also like banks, these exchanges take small amounts from every deposit. On top of that, some hold onto this money with terms about when you can withdraw it and how much you might lose or gain depending on the value of “your” Bitcoin. And that’s where the scammers come in.
Trust No One
Trust No One is full of first-hand accounts from only a handful of people. Some wearing masks and some chatting disdainfully toward the camera talking about their quest to find out “what happened to their money?” These victims and their forums online talked about and discussed what their next move was going to be as more information came to light. Meanwhile, task force investigators and financial super sleuths also did some digging.
Long story short, Gerry and his mate Michael had a long list of angry people looking for their money. When news of Gerry’s death hit the airwaves, his investors formed groups to discuss the company online. Cotten’s surviving wife is represented by her mother in the documentary. She claimed he took all his passcodes and Crypto-keys to the kingdom in the sky when he died. No one else could supposedly gain access to more than $250 million worth of Bitcoin. And therefore no one was getting any money back. To make matters worse, once proper investigators found out where the money was supposed to be, it was all gone.
With so many people dutifully following the money trail, one would expect a documentary about Gerry Cotten would eventually solve the mystery. Well, unfortunately, if you’re looking for an open and shut case, you are better off watching “Catching a Killer” where at the end you are given the resolution you want.
Trailer on Netflix for Trust No One Documentary
What Happened to Gerry Cotten?
What is proven and backed up with evidence in Trust No One, is that Gerry Cotten and his mate Michael go way back on scam websites. Michael Patryn turned out to be a career criminal with jail time under his belt for similar investment scams. Gerry’s wife was left millions worth in real estate from a will drafted only weeks before his untimely demise in India from, get this, Chron’s disease. Theories eventually emerged about Gerry’s wife too. Jennifer Robertson had her name changed a few times. In addition, someone uncovered an unsolved death belonging to her previous husband. Customers towards the end of the documentary are calling for Gerry Cotten’s body to be exhumed.
Trust No One ends with the impression that Gerry Cotten is living on an island somewhere. Enjoying his wealth under a pseudonym with a newly designed face. Either that or he was murdered by his wife Jennifer Robertson. What is known is that the whereabouts of the millions of dollars were never recovered and eventually independent monitors were assigned to enter Quadriga into Bankruptcy.
My theory is that Gerry Cotten got plastic surgery to look like his wife Jennifer and Jennifer never really existed. Too much? We’ll see.
Trust No One Documentary Ending
Overall, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is a neat but not quite solved true-crime documentary it’s worth taking a peek at.
Trust No One documentary is rated
3.5 wolf masks out of 5
