The founder of a French cryptocurrency company and his wife have been released after being brutally kidnapped and held for ransom in France this week, authorities announced Thursday.
David Balland, the founder of Ledger, a company that sells physical devices for storing crypto assets, was abducted along with his wife from their home in the central French city of Viarzon early Tuesday, Paris prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the couple were taken in a car and detained at separate locations.
The kidnapping sparked an extensive investigation involving more than 230 police officers to try to locate the couple. They were eventually released without any shots fired, authorities said at a news conference in Paris on Thursday night.
“This was an extremely complex case,” said Gen. Ghislain Letty, commander of the elite hostage rescue unit that freed the couple.
Paris prosecutor Laure Becuau said the kidnappers contacted another of Ledger's founders and demanded a large ransom payment in cryptocurrencies. She said investigators are still trying to figure out what the total amount they requested was.
The company alerted gendarmerie and police in small towns, rural areas and suburbs in France. French media outlets that learned of the investigation were asked not to publish details to avoid jeopardizing the couple's safety.
Military police quickly located Mr. Balland in Chateauroux, about 30 miles southwest of his home, and released him on Wednesday. Becuaux said he was hospitalized due to “amputation” inflicted on his hand by his kidnappers.
A person familiar with the investigation, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case, said the kidnappers sent images of Balland's severed finger to pressure the company.
Baekou said part of the ransom was paid during negotiations with the kidnappers. “Almost all of that virtual currency was tracked, frozen and seized,” she said.
On Thursday, investigators located Mr. Balland's wife in Etampes, about 130 miles north of Vierzon, by surveilling some suspects, analyzing phone records and questioning several people already arrested. Ta.
Becuaux said officers found her tied up in her car, but otherwise unharmed.
Nine men and one woman, aged between 20 and 40, were detained for questioning regarding the kidnapping, Becuaux said. She did not identify them or provide details about their involvement, only that they were from another city and had criminal records. It was not known to police that they were part of organized crime, she said.
Pascal Gauthier, Ledger's chief executive, wrote on social media on Thursday that he was “deeply relieved.”
“Our top priority has always been to enable law enforcement to do their jobs and protect the integrity of the investigation,” Gauthier said. “We respect the requests of law enforcement agencies to protect critical details of ongoing investigations, and we thank members of the media for doing the same.”
Ledger, a prominent startup valued at more than $1 billion, was founded in 2014 and has since sold more than 6 million units, according to the company's website. The company says it has more than 700 employees in Europe, Asia and the United States.
The company's other founder, Eric Larsbeck, a well-known TV personality who has appeared as a juror on France's equivalent of “Shark Tank,” said that after the release of Balland and his wife, He expressed in the media his “immeasurable relief and deep joy.”
Prosecutors have opened an investigation on suspicion of kidnapping and holding someone against their will as part of an organized gang in order to get something in exchange. Act of torture. and armed extortion. These crimes can carry life sentences, Bequo said.
The incident is similar to one reported by French news media this month in which a man and his family were taken hostage by a group trying to blackmail the son of a crypto influencer living in Dubai. They were reportedly released, but no arrests have been made in the case.
At this stage, investigators have not established any connection between the two incidents, Bequo said.
