Just a thought: could Gerald Cotten have also been a stolen identity, as his co-founder Michael Patryn was (Michael Patryn was actually "Omar Dhanani who was convicted on identity theft charges in the U.S. and served 18 months in Federal prison"[0])? It would be much easier to fake the death of a stolen identity and reassume your real identity, rather than fake the death of your real identity and assume a stolen one for the rest of your life.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriga_Fintech_Solutions