PORTRAIT – Aged 36, David Balland is one of the co-founders of the French start-up Ledger. He was released Wednesday evening by the GIGN from the hands of his captors in Châteauroux.
A shocked entrepreneur. David Balland, partner and co-founder of a company specializing in securing cryptoassets, was released Wednesday evening after being kidnapped and sequestered Tuesday in the Cher against a ransom. The kidnappers demanded “the payment of a large ransom in cryptocurrency” and these facts make them “incurring life imprisonment”says the Paris prosecutor's office. This Thursday, the public prosecutor clarified that the businessman's partner had also been released by the GIGN and that ten people were arrested.
Rumors initially evoked the disappearance of Éric Larchevêque, very media-oriented co-founder of the company and notably known for his participation in the television show “Who wants to be my partner” broadcast on M6. But it was another influential figure in the region of Vierzon (Cher), who was kidnapped from his home in Méreau, David Balland.
Aged 36, the businessman from Corrèze holds a Master of Information Science from SupInfo Orléans. In 2011, he co-founded the high definition music streaming platform RadioceRos with two discreet associates, Joël Pobeda and Vanessa Rabesandratana. The first appeared in the list of the 500 greatest French professional fortunes of Challenges in 2021 with 300 million euros, the second worked 15 years in “production of current and symphonic music”. “We were a music platform, an associative project”explained David Balland in a video published on YouTube, on 1is April 2022, in the show Extra-Walls.
The three friends finally decided to embark on another, much more lucrative entrepreneurial path: cryptocurrencies. In an interview with the local daily Berry Républicain, in 2021, the thirty-year-old explains having wanted “create a cryptocurrency adapted to (its) platform”. “We put away our record bins and said to ourselves that if there was something to do in cryptocurrency, it was now”he explained.
Leader mondial
Originally from Vierzon, the three specialists together launched Chronocoin.fr, where investors could make bitcoin purchases and receive them on a standard USB key at home. Hackathons (innovation competitions) have been launched in the Cher. “We said to ourselves that it was huge, he says in the video. We wanted to make bitcoin easy to access.” The revolutionary idea, given the opacity of the world of cryptocurrency, quickly won over and Nicolas Bacca, a smart card specialist and founder of BTChip, joined the adventure by offering to secure USB keys.
The two entities merged with Maison du Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency market project initiated by two other investors, Éric Larchevêque and Thomas France. The store, installed from 2014 to 2020 in the heart of Paris, was a pioneering place for cryptocurrencies on French territory.
After this merger in 2014, Ledger was created with eight partners. Over time, the French company has become a world leader in the design of robust physical cryptocurrency wallets, which allow everyone to directly manage their own cryptoassets. Valued at around 1.3 billion euros, the unicorn 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. Its premises are located
-According to the Berry Republican the start-up has however experienced some disappointments: two massive data leaks in July 2020, during which 300,000 complete datasets and a million email addresses were hacked. Then the National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties (Cnil) imposed a fine of 750,000 euros in October 2024 for not having sufficiently protected its customers' data.
Still alongside Joël Pobeda and Vanessa Rabesandratana, David Balland also developed an artistic center in 2019, “The Center”to develop accessible exhibits in the metaverse. In the show Extra-WallsDavid Balland saw in Elon Musk a “very good ambassador of cryptos”. “(Elon Musk) has changed his mind several times and he does a bit of anything, but he has boosted the ecosystem quite a bit”estimated the co-founder of Ledger. The latter, in the same video, urged young entrepreneurs “not to invest ideas”.
Video of David Balland's mutilated finger
With his partner, Amandine, web developer, David Balland moved around 2021 into a housing estate outside Vierzon. A few hectometers from Ledger's premises, located in the Sologne technology park. Although he seemed to lead a modest lifestyle, David Balland owned, like his associates, a cryptocurrency portfolio worth several million euros, which was targeted by the perpetrators of the kidnapping.
Following the attack, a judicial investigation must be opened on Friday, in particular to “organized gang kidnapping and sequestration”accompanied by“acts of torture or barbarity” as well as“extortion with weapon” for the ten people placed in police custody, indicated Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau. The National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) is responsible for the investigations.
These ten suspects, nine men and one woman aged 20 to 40, were notably arrested in Châteauroux (Indre) for three of them and in Étampes (Essonne) for six. The alert was given by Eric Larchevêque, co-founder of the company: he received a video of a mutilated finger from David Balland and a ransom demand, according to a source close to the matter.
It's a “large cryptocurrency ransom” demanded, said the prosecution, without specifying the amount on Thursday. “A part” of this “ransom was paid as part of the negotiation” with the police, but “the majority of cryptocurrencies have been seized and frozen”however, clarified the Paris prosecutor. The entire national gendarmerie was contacted, from the Bourges research section to the national cyber unit.
