France is holding six men and a woman following the kidnapping and torture of the cofounder of a global cryptocurrency company and his partner, prosecutors said on Saturday.
The seven, who could face long prison terms up to life, are among 10 people taken into custody late on Thursday as anti-gang investigators probe the case.
David Balland, a 36-year-old cofounder and former employee of Ledger — a world leader in security systems for crypto and digital assets — and his partner were taken from his home in Mereau in the Loire region early on Tuesday, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters on Friday.
Photo: AFP
Another Ledger cofounder, Eric Larcheveque, alerted police to the kidnapping after receiving a video showing a mutilated finger belonging to Balland, and a ransom demand, a source close to the case said.
Police located and freed Balland on Wednesday, and he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
His partner, taken to a different location by the presumed kidnappers, was found tied up in a car.
Most of the suspects were already known to police for past criminal activities, but none had previously been involved in gang-related crime, prosecutors said.
The kidnappers asked for “a large cryptocurrency sum,” Beccuau said, without giving an amount, with part of it handed over during negotiations handled by police before most of the crypto assets were seized and frozen.
The seven — five of whom are aged 20 to 25 — were being held in pretrial detention. They face charges of gang-related kidnapping, acts of torture and armed extortion. Their lawyers have so far declined to comment.
Three others initially held have been released.
A total of 230 police and gendarmes were involved in the operation, including the GIGN elite tactical unit specializing in hostage situations, along with cryptocurrency experts.
Founded in 2014, French company Ledger is a so-called “unicorn” — a privately held start-up worth more than US$1 billion — and a world leader in digital wallets and vaults to safeguard crypto assets.
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