Exit Scam

Treats Media

9 episodes listed below

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A crypto fortune, a coffin, and unanswered questions.

The gist

Exit Scam is a measured investigation into Quadriga, the Canadian Bitcoin exchange whose founder died while customer money vanished. It tracks the case through court documents, interviews, India reporting, and the strange theories left behind.

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About Exit Scam

Exit Scam is a long-form investigation into Quadriga, once described as Canada's largest Bitcoin exchange, and the collapse that followed Gerald Cotten's death. The story begins with a clean hook: customers were told their money was trapped because the founder had not left behind the passwords. Then the clean hook starts to fray. The series traces how a missing-password story became a larger inquiry into fraud, identity, control, and whether the official explanation could account for the money that vanished. It moves patiently. One episode reaches back to Quadriga's early days and Michael Patron's role as co-founder. Another follows questions around Jennifer Robertson's return from India with Cotten's coffin. Another lingers over paper wallets, private keys, and the possibility that crucial information may once have been stored in a small safe bolted to attic rafters. The crypto details are explained plainly, then folded back into the investigation. The show is strongest when it lets ordinary facts become strange without forcing them into spectacle. A hotel visit in Jaipur, a doctor's clinic, a medical report, and a guarded resort all become part of the reporting map. So do customer losses. Exit Scam keeps returning to the people left behind, including customers who lost large sums or watched life savings disappear. QCX Int, an anonymous Quadriga customer turned detective, gives the series one of its clearest through-lines from suspicion to documentation. Stephen Rombaum adds a more speculative but relevant frame around fake-death cases. Law enforcement is present mostly as an absence: the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are named, but the series emphasizes the frustration caused by limited public answers. The tone is controlled and dry. It has room for the absurd, including theories about exhumation and vanished keys, but it keeps its center of gravity on evidence. Listeners get a fraud story, a crypto story, and a study of how uncertainty hardens when money is gone. Exit Scam is best for patient true-crime listeners who prefer documents, interviews, and skeptical reconstruction over shock.

Made for: For listeners drawn to financial true crime, crypto scandals, and investigations where documents matter as much as theories. It also suits anyone who likes reported narrative with a dry, careful pace.

What sets it apart: Exit Scam stands apart by treating a sensational crypto mystery as a disciplined reporting problem. It explains Bitcoin mechanics just enough, then keeps returning to evidence, interviews, and the customers still living with the loss.

In their own words

In 2018, Gerald Cotten, the founder of Canada's biggest Bitcoin exchange, died under mysterious circumstances during a honeymoon trip to India.His customers were told that the $215 million they'd deposited on the exchange was lost forever — because Gerry had forgotten to leave behind his passwords.But here's the thing: Not everyone believes he's dead.Exit Scam is about what really happened to Gerald Cotten and the fortune that disappeared with him.

As heard by us

Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Exit Scam makes a complex cryptocurrency collapse legible through patient reporting, clear financial explanations, and disciplined attention to unresolved evidence.

Exit Scam follows the Quadriga collapse through Gerald Cotton's death, the missing customer funds, and the suspicion that he may have survived. The serialized investigation keeps its central mystery open while separating documented facts from rumor.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A missing password leads to an empty safe, a coffin, and your suddenly very suspicious evening.

Press play if you want

  • to follow one financial mystery through court documents, old interviews, and a trip to India
  • a host who tests the fake-death theory against hospital records and the stubborn existence of a coffin
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Quadriga collapsemissing cryptocurrency fundslost passwords and private keysGerald Cotten's death in Indiacustomer lossespaper wallets and safe storagelaw enforcement silenceexhumation theories

Talks about

Best episodes of Exit Scam

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Part VIII: The ExitJun 28, 2021

A deadpan fraud story that keeps the money trail and the body question equally in view.

Exit Scam narrows in on the strangest part of a very ordinary fraud: after a year of silence, Quadriga's customers are asking the RCMP to dig up Gerald Cotton and confirm he is really in the coffin.

Part VII: The WifeJun 21, 2021

An investigative true-crime story about access, custody, and the details that matter most.

The episode follows Jennifer Robertson through the aftermath of Gerald Cotton's death in Jaipur and is strongest when it stays grounded in practical details: the coffin flight home, the email to the orphanage staff, the explanation of paper wallets, the attic safe, and the…

Part VI: The CoffinJun 14, 2021

A measured fraud story that finds its tension in places and records.

Exit Scam follows the practical puzzle of a man who may have tried to vanish, tracing where someone like Gerald Cotton could have gone and what a private investigator can still piece together.

Part II: The Co-FounderMay 17, 2021

A measured look at how Quadriga's hidden co-founder shapes the story.

Part II moves from Jerry Cotton's public image to Michael Patron, Quadriga's co-founder, and that shift gives the episode its shape. The piece is at its best when it tracks Jerry's choice to leave Mike out of early public documents and Quadriga press releases, then lets Mike…

Part I: The Lost PasswordMay 10, 2021

A calm, methodical missing-money story where a single password carries outsized consequences.

Exit Scam begins with a blunt setup: Gerald Cotton, the founder of Quadriga CX, dies on a trip to India in 2018, and a missing password leaves thousands of Canadians cut off from their money.

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Episodes

  1. 1

    Part VIII: The Exit

    By December 2019, Quadriga customers wanted the coffin opened.

    Jun 28, 2021·31m·2 clips
  2. 2

    Part VII: The Wife

    Jennifer Robertson is alone in Jaipur.

    Jun 21, 2021·31m·3 clips
  3. 3

    Part VI: The Coffin

    The trail starts with a practical question.

    Jun 14, 2021·39m·3 clips
  4. 4

    Part V: The Old Friend

    Jun 7, 2021·34m
  5. 5

    Part IV: The Chris Markay Account

    May 31, 2021·31m
  6. 6

    Part III: The Ponzi Schemer

    May 24, 2021·28m
  7. 7

    Part II: The Co-Founder

    Gerald Cotton appears as Bitcoin's young founder.

    May 17, 2021·27m·2 clips
  8. 8

    Part I: The Lost Password

    A missing password becomes the whole mess.

    May 10, 2021·28m·2 clips
  9. 9

    Exit Scam is coming May 10th

    May 5, 2021·2m