Unable to Retrieve Money, Cryptocurrency Investors Want Dead Executive Exhumed

After Gerald W. Cotten died last year, his clients at the cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX found themselves unable to gain access to at least $250 million in their accounts. The company’s operations were encrypted, and he was the only person who knew the passwords needed to move the funds, the company said.

Now, with law enforcement officials in two countries investigating potential wrongdoing at the firm, frustrated investors want definitive proof that Mr. Cotten is actually dead.

Lawyers appointed by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, where Quadriga is based, to represent its users asked Canadian law enforcement officials in a letter on Friday to exhume his body and conduct an autopsy “to confirm both its identity and the cause of death.”

They cited “the questionable circumstances surrounding Mr. Cotten’s death and the significant losses” suffered by his company’s investors, as well as “the need for certainty around the question of whether Mr. Cotten is in fact…