- QuadrigaCX customers have filed claims worth over $307 million
- Almost 17,000 former users have submitted provable claims
- Canadian tax authorities to audit the books before customers see a penny
Claims made against QuadrigaCX, the exchange that was forced to close its doors last year when it lost access to its funds, have exceeded $307 million at current values. In a recent update, auditors EY reported that they have received a total of 16,959 proofs of claims by former QuadrigaCX customers, although with only some $21 million in assets and the taxman yet to have his cut, honoring these claims could be problematic.
$307 Million in Claims
EY posted the creditor update Monday, in which they recapped the history of the QuadrigaCX case and listed the claims they had received so far, following their request for those who had funds on the exchange to come forward. This has result, as of May 6, in almost 17,000 claimants making provable claims currently worth US$307.16 million:
This amount is over 14 times the amount of assets that the company has, and doesn’t take into account its liabilities of $160 million which EY revealed last year. It also doesn’t factor in the fact that the company filed no tax returns, resulting the Canada Revenue Agency demanding to audit the exchange’s accounts and take their cut, which will take precedence over user claims:
The determination of a CRA tax claim against Quadriga is necessary prior to the Trustee declaring any distribution to Affected Users or creditors generally as tax claims rank pari passu with the unsecured claims of Affected Users.
Customers Face Huge Shortfall
What little that QuadrigaCX customers can expect back is therefore yet to be determined, with EY stating that “all claims will be converted to a Canadian dollar equivalent for distribution purposes”, which is bad news for those who held tokens on the exchange that were of a far higher dollar value than they are now.
QuadrigaCX closed down following the death of founder Gerald Cotton in December 2018, whose passing left the exchange’s wallets inaccessible. Access was finally gained to these wallets in March 2019 but they were found to have been drained earlier in 2018, leading to suspicions that Cotten is not dead.
