Kidnapped, sequestered then released: investigations continue on Thursday, after the release the day before by the gendarmerie of the co-founder of a company specializing in securing cryptoassets and his partner, who had been kidnapped on Tuesday in the Cher for ransom.
Their kidnapping dates back to “early morning” on Tuesday. David Balland, partner and co-founder of Ledger, and his partner were kidnapped from their home in Cher.
According to the Paris prosecutor's office, which is leading the investigations, the kidnappers demanded “the payment of a large ransom in cryptocurrency”. These facts cause them to “incur life imprisonment”.
David Balland was released on Wednesday, the prosecution said Thursday morning. Then, at the end of the afternoon, the public prosecutor clarified that the businessman's partner had also been released by the GIGN, the gendarmerie intervention unit.
The Paris prosecutor is due to hold a press conference at 7:30 p.m. at the capital's judicial court.
The investigations were first led by the Bourges public prosecutor's office, for kidnapping and sequestration by an organized gang. The Paris prosecutor's office's anti-organized crime division took over.
The entire national gendarmerie was contacted, from the Bourges research section to the national Cyber unit.
Rumors initially mentioning the disappearance of Eric Larchevêque, a very media-focused co-founder of the company and notably known for his participation in the show “Who wants to be my partner” broadcast on M6, had been relayed on social networks .
Thursday afternoon, the prosecution clarified that investigators were mobilized with the GIGN, to “identify and arrest all the perpetrators of this crime”.
– “Big boom” –
Since Tuesday evening, other publications have reported police operations and the presence of gendarmerie in the municipalities of Vierzon and Méreau.
In Méreau, a village of 2,600 inhabitants south of Vierzon, a gendarmerie operation was still underway early Thursday afternoon, noted an AFP journalist.
-Two kilometers away, on the banks of the Berry canal in the town of Vierzon, an owner on Thursday attached wooden boards to the windows of housing intended for rental.
His homes were searched the day before, and their doors and windows were broken during this operation, this owner told AFP, wishing to remain anonymous.
He also specified that the police had asked him to provide his Airbnb and Booking reservations. In total “dozens of Airbnb apartments were checked by the police” in the context of this affair, in the town and elsewhere, he said.
For him, the important thing is that the victim is alive. “A life was at stake, all that is impressive, it will have to be repaired, but that is not the most important thing,” he added.
“I heard a big boom, I was scared, I wondered what it was,” a local resident who did not wish to reveal her identity, specifying that she had seen “a helicopter flying over the area.
Ledger is a French unicorn (startup that has exceeded a billion dollars), founded in 2014, world leader in the design of physical cryptocurrency wallets, allowing everyone to directly manage their own cryptoassets.
The company, valued at more than a billion euros, has sold more than seven million devices in more than 180 countries and in 10 languages. It secures 20% of the world's digital assets, and has more than 100 institutional clients.
This kidnapping case, linked to cryptocurrencies, is reminiscent of that of a 56-year-old man, found at the beginning of January in the trunk of a car near Le Mans, several hundred kilometers from his home in Ain.
According to several media, it was a cryptocurrency influencer based in Dubai, who regularly posts videos about his winnings, and a ransom demand had been made.
The Bourg-en-Bresse public prosecutor's office then opened a flagrant investigation into the charge of arrest, kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention committed by an organized gang.
