French police are investigating a series of investor kidnappings linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man cut off by attackers who demanded his crypto-millionaire son.
In the last of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in Western France and Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was released from a house south of Paris on Saturday evening. He had been detained for more than two days.
One of the man’s fingers had been cut and the investigators feared that other mutilation could have occurred if he had not been rescued.
The man, who was not publicly identified, was removed in broad daylight at 10:30 am Thursday morning while walking in a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Four men in ski masks forced her to enter a delivery van.
He was released by armed police during a raid at 9 p.m. Saturday evening from a house at 20 km (12 miles) south of Paris, in the Essonne region. Five suspects in their twenties were arrested at home.
The state prosecutor said in a statement: “The victim seems to be the father of a man who made a fortune in cryptocurrency, the crime involving a ransom application.”
The victim’s wife told investigators that her husband and her rich son, who both owned a cryptographic marketing company in Malta, had received threats in the past, a police source said.
The Parisian said the attackers had demanded a ransom of 5 to 7 million euros (4 to 6 million pounds sterling), which was not paid. The five suspects of kidnapping, aged 20 to 27, were still questioned by the police on Sunday.
The removal is the last of a series of abduction of cryptocurrency figures in France and in neighboring countries.
David Balland, the co-founder of the Cryptographic Company Ledger, which is estimated at more than $ 1 billion, was abducted with his partner on January 21 at their home in Méreau, near loads in the center of France. He also had a cut finger.
The attackers arrived at Balland at the early hours of the morning, taking him and his partner and separated them. Balland was taken to a house in the city of Châteauroux, where one of his fingers was cut.
The police were contacted by Balland’s trading partner who received a video from the finger at the same time a large ransom in cryptocurrency, of around 10 million euros. Balland was released during a police raid shortly after. His partner was found attached in the trunk of a car in a parking lot in the Essonne region south of Paris the next day.
Nine suspects are under a criminal investigation in this case, including the alleged leader, 26, who has a police file for a previous abduction.
In December 2024, the 56-year-old father of an influencer of French cryptocurrency based in Dubai, was the target of an alleged abduction in eastern France, local media reported. The attackers arrived at the man’s home, attached his wife and daughter and forced him to enter a car.
The son of the influence of the man received a ransom request and contacted the police. The two women were then quickly released. The father was not discovered until 24 hours later in the trunk of a car in Normandy, attached and showing signs of physical violence, having been dotted with essence.
Other kidnapping of cryptocurrency figures or their partners have been reported in Spain and Belgium in the past five months.
