A French cryptocurrency founder and his wife were freed this week in France after being brutally kidnapped and held for ransom, authorities said Thursday.
David Balland, founder Booka company that sells physical storage devices crypto assetswas abducted along with his wife early Tuesday from their home in Vierzon, a city in central France, according to a Paris prosecutor. The pair were hit by a car, then separated and detained at different locations, the prosecutor said.
The abduction sparked a wide-ranging investigation involving more than 230 officers trying to find the couple. They were eventually released without firing a shot, authorities said at a press conference in Paris on Thursday evening.
“This was an extremely complex case,” said General Ghislain Réty, head of the elite unit specializing in hostage rescue that freed the pair.
The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the hijackers contacted another founder at Ledger and demanded that a large ransom be paid in cryptocurrency. She said investigators were still determining how much they requested in total.
The company alerted the gendarmerie, police forces in smaller towns and rural and suburban areas of France. French news outlets that caught wind of the investigation were urged to refrain from publishing any details to avoid jeopardizing the couple’s safety.
Gendarmes quickly located Mr. Balland in Châteauroux, about 30 miles southwest of his home, and released him on Wednesday. He was hospitalized because of the “mutilation” inflicted on his arm by the kidnappers, Ms. Beccuau said.
An official with knowledge of the investigation, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case, said the kidnappers sent a picture of Mr. Balland’s mutilated finger to pressure the company.
Part of the ransom was paid during negotiations with the kidnappers, Ms. Beccuau said. “Almost all of that cryptocurrency was tracked, frozen and seized,” she said.
On Thursday, using surveillance of some suspects, analyzing phone records and questioning several people already arrested, investigators located Mr. Balland’s wife in Étampes, about 80 miles north of Vierzon.
Officers found her bound in the car but otherwise unharmed, Ms. Beccuau said.
In all, nine men and one woman, aged between 20 and 40, were taken into custody for questioning in the abduction, Ms Beccuau said. She did not identify them or provide details about their involvement, saying only that they were from different cities and had criminal records. They were not known to the police as part of organized crime, she said.
Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger wrote, On social media Thursday that he was “deeply liberated.”
“Our top priority has always been to allow law enforcement to do its job and protect the integrity of the investigation,” Mr. Gautier said. “We respected law enforcement requests to protect critical details about the ongoing investigation and appreciated members of the press who did the same.”
Ledger, a prominent start-up valued at more than $1 billion, was founded in 2014 and has since sold more than six million units, according to the company’s website. It has over 700 employees in Europe, Asia and the United States, the company says.
Éric Larchevêque, another founder of the company and a well-known TV personality who appeared on the jury The French equivalent of “Shark Tank”.“Expressed “immense relief and deep joy” On social media After the release of Mr. Balland and his wife.
Prosecutors open an investigation into allegations of kidnapping and holding someone against their will as part of an organized gang in order to get something in exchange; acts of torture; and armed extortion. Those crimes can carry prison terms, Ms. Beccuau said.
The case resonated similarly reported the French news media This month a man and his family were held hostage by a group that wanted to blackmail his son, a cryptocurrency influencer living in Dubai. They were released, but no arrests were made in that case, According to the news.
At this stage, investigators have not established any links between the two cases, Ms Beccuau said.
