In a significant victory for provincial authorities, British Columbia has successfully won the forfeiture of more than $1 million in cash, gold bars, and luxury items connected to the catastrophic collapse of the Vancouver-based cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX.
The Judgment and the Seized Assets
The B.C. Supreme Court recently granted a default judgment to the province's Civil Forfeiture Office, transferring ownership of the valuable cache to the government. The assets were seized by the RCMP in 2021 from a safety deposit box at a CIBC branch in Vancouver. The box was registered to Michael Patryn, who co-founded QuadrigaCX with Gerald Cotten.
The forfeited items include $250,000 in cash and a substantial quantity of gold. The gold holdings consist of three one-kilogram gold bars and 42 smaller bars, with a total estimated value exceeding $800,000 at current market prices. The collection of luxury personal items features two Rolex Datejust watches, a Chanel J12 Black diamond watch, a Baume & Mercier men's Clasima watch, three rings, two cufflinks, a pendant, and a necklace.
The Collapse of QuadrigaCX and the Mystery of the Lost Funds
QuadrigaCX was once considered Canada's largest cryptocurrency platform before its stunning failure in 2019. The collapse left more than 76,000 customers unable to access their funds, with total investor losses estimated at a minimum of $169 million. The situation was exacerbated by the sudden death of CEO Gerald Cotten in December 2018 while he was visiting India.
At the time, the company stated that Cotten was the sole individual who possessed the security keys and passwords required to access the vast majority of customer funds held in cold storage. This claim turned the event into one of the most infamous mysteries in the history of digital finance, explored in documentaries like Sheona McDonald's "Dead Man's Switch."
Legal Action and Unexplained Wealth Order
The civil forfeiture lawsuit, launched by the province in 2023, alleged that Patryn used client money for his personal benefit and financial gain. Specifically, the province's filing stated that the RCMP alleged the funds were used to "purchase, acquire, and maintain" the safety deposit box and its contents.
In a 2024 court filing, Patryn denied the allegations, asserting that the assets were not the proceeds of unlawful activity. However, the province utilized a powerful new tool—an unexplained wealth order—under provincial legislation designed to combat money laundering. This order, filed in 2024, compelled Patryn to explain how he acquired the contents of the safety deposit box.
The case reached its conclusion this autumn when Patryn filed a withdrawal of his response to the allegations. Following this, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture office applied for and was granted the default judgment for the full cache of cash, gold, watches, and jewelry. According to court documents, Patryn's last known location was Thailand.
This forfeiture represents a notable application of British Columbia's strengthened civil forfeiture laws aimed at piercing the secrecy around assets suspected of being linked to crime. While it recovers only a fraction of the hundreds of millions lost by QuadrigaCX clients, it marks a concrete step by authorities to attach consequences to the exchange's dramatic downfall.
