Ten people are in police custody Thursday evening, suspected of being involved in the kidnapping and sequestration, with acts of torture, of the co-founder of a company specializing in securing cryptoassets and his partner, who have since been released.
A judicial investigation will be opened on Friday, in particular for “kidnapping and sequestration by an organized gang”, accompanied by “acts of torture or barbarity” as well as “extortion with weapons”, indicated Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose Jurisdiction National Action 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.
Most were known to the courts for common law crimes, but not for links to organized crime, according to Ms. Beccuau, who spoke at a press conference in Paris.
Asked about the possibility of a sponsor as yet unidentified, or even abroad, Ms. Beccuau simply replied that investigations were continuing to “identify all the actors”.
– Mutilated hand –
The kidnapping took place on Tuesday, in the “early morning”.
David Balland, co-founder and ex-employee of Ledger, and his partner were kidnapped from their home in Méreau in Cher.
One is taken to Châteauroux, the other is sequestered in several places.
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 is a “large ransom in cryptocurrency” demanded, said the prosecution, without specifying the amount on Thursday.
“Part” of this “ransom was paid as part of the negotiation” with the police, but “the majority of the cryptocurrencies were seized and frozen”, however specified Ms. Beccuau.
On Wednesday, the police managed to free David Balland, hospitalized for his mutilation.
In Châteauroux, two suspects were arrested upon his release on Wednesday, and a third the following night, when he returned to the scene, said a source close to the case. His companion remained nowhere to be found.
– “Relief” –
Leads collected during the first hearings, the use of telephones… made it possible to put the investigators on the trail of Étampes (Essonne), without really knowing what they were going to find there, underlines the source close to the file : a sponsor? the other victim?
-They finally found her “tied up in the trunk of a vehicle” in this town south of Paris, explained the prosecutor, where six other suspects were arrested.
A tenth person was arrested at the start of the investigations, at a location and date which have not been specified at this stage.
“We are deeply relieved that David and his wife have been released and are now safe,” Pascal Gauthier, president and CEO of Ledger, responded Thursday evening.
Same “immense relief” expressed by Eric Larchevêque on the social network X.
The investigations were first led by the Bourges public prosecutor's office, for kidnapping and sequestration by an organized gang. Then the Paris prosecutor's office took over.
The entire national gendarmerie was contacted, from the Bourges research section to the national Cyber unit.
“A kidnapping is extremely complex because it is a non-localized hostage-taking” especially since the kidnapping was “in two places”, underlined the GIGN during the press conference. “Negotiation is really a tactical tool” to achieve “proof of life”.
Around fifteen cyber investigators from the gendarmerie also worked to search, identify and seize cryptoassets.
In total, more than 230 gendarmes were mobilized.
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.
At this stage, the Paris prosecutor's office does not make a link between the two cases.
