When Bruno Retailleau talks about « mexicanisation » From France, some still like to believe that the Minister of the Interior exaggerates, forces the line, dramatizes. And yet … The kidnapping and sequestration this week of David Balland, co -founder of Ledger, a society of cryptocurrencies, and of his partner, demonstrate that this criminal phenomenon is today in full resurgence.
Since December 15, no less than ten cases of kidnappings, sequesters have led to the intervention of the GIGN, the elite force of the gendarmerie. According to our information, the more a hundred and a hundred rapids were recorded in the Gendarmerie zone last year when the Directorate of the Judicial Police (DNPJ) lists no less than three hundred cases related to kidnappings. If part of these kidnappings are linked to settling of scores between drug traffickers, entrepreneurs, influencers and other cryptomillionaries are today the privileged target of these criminals who no longer hide their desire to get their hands on their digital assets, reputed intraçable.
Tuesday, January 21, in the early morning, David Balland is still in his small property in Méreau when several individuals burst into his home. This 36 -year -old serial entrepreneur, who settled in this small town in Cher, a few kilometers away from Ledger's offices, leads a discreet life. But his kidnappers know that he is sitting on a plump fortune. His company, valued at 1.3 billion euros, is the world leader in secure physical portfolio of cryptocurrencies.
Ravisseurs demand 10 million euros in Bitcoins
If he is not the most publicized partners of this French unicorn, David Balland is among his friends, Éric Larchevêque. The founder of Ledger is among the jurors of the program Who wants to be my partner? On M6. Always on the lookout for an opportunity, he invests his money in new companies full of promises. He was among the first to smell the full potential of cryptos like Bitcoin, of which he specialized in securing digital portfolios. It is he who gives the alert after having received on WhatsApp at the end of the morning a ransom request accompanied by a video of David Balland, his hand mutilated. The number is Asian. Ravisseurs use a VPN (virtual private network) to blur the tracks and upset the work of investigators who would like to go back to them.
Immediately, an investigation was opened by the Bourges prosecutor's office, before the National Jurisdiction to Combat Organized Crime (Junalco) took over. The case is serious. Huge means are deployed: the intervention group of the National Gendarmerie (GIGN), the Cyber national unit (UNC), the command of the Ministry of the Interior in Cyberspace (Comcyber-Mi) or the Institute Criminal research of the National Gendarmerie (IRCGN) supports the first research operations in the field. While helicopters fly over merere, first rumors spread to the net that evoke the kidnapping of Eric Larchevêque. The prosecution does not infirm or confirms but imposes radio on the media, for fear that information will parasitize the investigations in progress.
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Because investigators are progressing. Especially those of the Cyber national unit. With the help of Ledger engineers, they trapped a bitcoin. GIGN negotiators consent to a first transaction. The kidnappers demand ten million euros. They only receive the equivalent of 100,000 euros. Although the sum is traced and soon blocked. The idea was first to give yourself time.
On Tuesday evening, the investigation experienced an accelerator. A bourge tray crew stops the driver of a stolen car. The individual was linked with the gang of kidnappers. The exploitation of his phone leads to geolocating the place where David Balland is potentially kidnapped. It is a house rented on Airbnb near Châteauroux (Indre). Wednesday January 22, a GIGN unit invests the premises, exploded the door of the residence. Taken by surprise, two of the kidnappers go without being able to exchange a shot. David Balland is released and taken to the hospital. But Amandine, her partner, remains not found. She was separated from David Balland and driving in another vehicle. For the GIGN and the investigators, it is advisable to redouble their efforts. They fear that the second team of kidnappers will lose foot and take it physically in Amandine, as a reprisals. The next day, around 2 p.m., the GIGN advises a van in the Etampes sector (Essonne). The gendarmes find the young woman tied up. They challenge six other individuals.
Saturday, January 25, seven of them were indicted by the Paris prosecutor's office for, among other arrests, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention with torture or barbarism act and to obtain the execution of an order or a condition in organized gang. Crimes liable to life imprisonment. The suspects, aged 20 to 40, are already known to the police. One of them, originally from Marseille, would be linked to narcotrafic. For the most part, according to the first elements of the investigation, contract workers, “Jobbeurs” who didn't know each other. It remains to be seen who is the brain of this case, who are the sponsors of these kidnappings.
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