Viswa Vanapalli
Netflix’s ‘Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King’ chronicles the fallout of Gerald Cotten’s death in December 2018. As the CEO of QuadrigaCX, it turned out that the access to millions of the customers’ money in cryptocurrency died with him. This resulted in a huge uproar and an extensive investigation into Gerry’s practices as well as his past associates. Soon, Quadriga’s co-founder Michael Patryn’s history became a point of contention. So, if you’re wondering who Michael is and where he might be today, here’s what we know.
Who is Michael Patryn?
Michael first got in touch with a group of cryptocurrency investors called Bitcoin Co-Op in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. At the time, he reached out to the group, telling them about his idea to build a Bitcoin exchange. Michael eventually teamed up with Gerry, but many noted they were an odd pairing. In 2013, with Gerry being three years out of college, he started Quadriga and Michael was the co-founder, funding the project. However, Michael left the company in 2016 after disagreements regarding the company going public.
At the time that Gerry suddenly died, Michael was still one of Quadriga’s largest shareholders, in addition to his partner, Lovie Horner. Soon, it was reported that Michael had a rather shady past, with a criminal history in the United States dating back to the 2000s. A man named Omar Dhanani served time in federal prison back in 2005 for identity theft. It was believed that Michael and Omar were one and the same.
In 2002, Omar was a member of a website called Shadowcrew. This website served as a place for people to traffic stolen credit card information and bank card numbers. By using different names, Omar provided electric money laundering services and took a 10% cut. Then about 20 years old, he was arrested in 2004 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud. Omar was released in May 2007 but then pled guilty to burglary and grand theft auto about a month later.
He was then deported to Canada. While Michael denied being Omar, official documents appeared to link both the names. One of Omar’s aliases was Omar Patryn. After Gerry died in 2018, many of QuadrigaCX’s customers started a Telegram group that aimed to investigate what happened. At one point, Michael joined the group and seemed to play down his involvement with the company.
Nevertheless, some group members went to extraordinary measures to scour the internet to find out more about Michael and Gerry. Their relationship seemingly began in 2003 on a website called TalkGold dedicated to Ponzi schemes. Both were regulars and pulled off these scams and posed as each other’s satisfied customers against actual angry investors. Michael was linked to a digital currency business called Midas Gold that served as a processor for Liberty Reserve, a type of digital currency. This was used by child pornographers, drug traffickers, and the like to launder money.
Where is Michael Patryn Now?
It seems that Michael is still active in digital currency trading. In January 2022, it was reported that 0xSifu, the treasury head of Wonderland, a decentralized-finance project, was, in fact, Michael. The controversy resulted in the related tokens dropping in value. The co-founder, Daniele Sestagalli, appeared to acknowledge 0xSifu’s identity and announced later that Michael had stepped down from his role. Apart from that, Michael has kept away from social media and seems to have closely guarded his whereabouts. However, in an interview in 2019, he mentioned staying in Thailand and then traveling to Hong Kong.
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