Kidnapped and kidnapped, David Balland, co-founder of a company specializing in cryptoassets, and his partner were released on Wednesday by the GIGN, following joint work by numerous services. Both are safe and sound. The Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, returned in more detail, in a press conference, to this kidnapping.
What did the kidnappers want?
Tuesday, early in the morning, David Balland and his partner were kidnapped from their home in Vierzon. Their captors intend to release them against a ransom. To show their determination, they cut off a finger from the business manager and send it to his associates. They are demanding ten million euros, to be paid in the form of Bitcoins to be transmitted to a Wallet (digital wallet).
If the police are quickly notified, part of the sum is paid to the kidnappers, according to the protocol explained to shareholders. Technical operations will ultimately make it possible to block and trace these cryptocurrencies.
What is the profile of the attackers?
In total, ten people, nine men and one woman, were arrested. A judicial investigation will be opened this Friday, in particular for “kidnapping and sequestration by an organized gang”, “acts of torture or barbarism” as well as “extortion with a weapon”. Crimes punishable by life imprisonment.
Placed in police custody, the ten people arrested are between 20 and 40 years old and come from all over France, said the public prosecutor. Most of them were known to the courts for common law crimes, but not in connection with organized crime. According to a source close to the investigation, the profile of the various people arrested is rather that of executors, not sponsors.
How did investigators manage to trace the perpetrators?
Less than forty-eight hours passed between the couple's kidnapping and their release. Initially seized, the Bourges public prosecutor's office very quickly handed over to the Interregional Jurisdiction specializing in the fight against organized crime and delinquency in Paris. One of the eight specialized centers in France.
-“Thanks to the GPS of a car used by the hostage-takers, the first indications of the places where David Balland and his wife would be kidnapped emerge,” recalls The Parisian. By scouring the rental platforms, investigators managed to trace David Balland, kidnapped in Châteauroux (Indre), on Wednesday. Two suspects were arrested by the GIGN, a third during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, as he returned to the scene.
How did the release of partner David Balland take place?
After the company manager's release, the investigators must act quickly, lest they try to get rid of his partner, sequestered in another place.
Our file on the GIGN
The first hearings and the use of telephones put investigators on the trail of Etampes (Essonne). The partner was found late Wednesday afternoon by the GIGN “tied up in the trunk of a vehicle”, explains the prosecutor, but “safe and sound”. Six new people were arrested during the police intervention.
