French police are investigating a series of kidnappings of cryptocurrency millionaires after storming a house near Paris and saved a man whose finger was cut by the captors demanding a ransom.
The man, who is about 60 years old and has a cryptocurrency company with his son, was released by the Gign elite police unit on Saturday evening, two days after masked men snatched him in a street in wealthy Paris on Broad Daylight.
The scenario was almost identical to the kidnapping of the rich founder of a French cryptocurrency company in January, which also cut the finger.
David Balland, 36, was removed from his home by armed men. Police found her bound and gagged at the back of a van 24 hours later. Her The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of 10 million euros.
The livers of the 60 -year -old man, whose name was not made public, asked between 5 and 7 million euros. He was described as an investor in the cryptocurrency marketing company of his son, based in Malta.
The investigators feared that he could not be injured further if they had not saved him on Saturday at 9 p.m. in a house in the Palaiseau region, 12 miles south of Paris. Five suspects in their twenties were arrested at home. Two others were arrested on Sunday.
Four men wearing ski masks had caught the man while walking along a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris Thursday morning. They took him to a delivery van and left.
David Balland was taken under the threat of a firearm from his home in the center of France
His wife said her husband and son had been threatened in the past.
The removal was the last of several cryptocurrency entrepreneurs targeting in France and in other European countries.
Balland, co-founder of Ledger, a company specializing in digital portfolios to store cryptocurrencies, valued at around 1.3 billion euros, was removed on January 21.
He and his partner, Amandine, were forced to leave their house near the Bourges, in the center of France, under the threat of a weapon. They were then separated and Balland was taken to a house in the city of Châteauroux, where one of his fingers was cut.
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Ten men and a woman, aged 20 to 40, were arrested. Nine have been accused of kidnapping, including the alleged gang leader, who is 26 years old and has a police file for kidnapping.
In December, the 56-year-old father of an influencer of French cryptocurrency based in Dubai was targeted by kidnappers in eastern France. He was seized from his home and forced into a car while his wife and daughter were attached.
Her son contacted the police after receiving a ransom request, and the two women were released in a few hours. The father was discovered living in the trunk of a car in Normandy a day later. He was bruised and had been sprinkled with petrol.
Several other kidnappings of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs or their partners have been reported in Spain and Belgium in recent months.
