On the afternoon of Thursday, January 23, a gendarmerie operation in the Paris region targeted two vehicles. Inside were three men and the wife of David Balland, a notable figure in the cryptocurrency sector and co-founder of the Ledger company. The operation marked the conclusion of a 48-hour manhunt for the entrepreneur and his wife who had been rescued by the gendarmerie's GIGN tactical unit just 24 hours prior.
The couple had been abducted in the early hours of Tuesday, January 21, from their home in the town of Méreau in central France, where Ledger's headquarters are located. Forced into two vehicles, the man and woman were separated. The identity of the kidnappers has not been revealed, but 10 people have been taken into custody, the Paris prosecutor's office announced at a press conference on Thursday evening. The hostage-takers were demanding a "substantial cryptocurrency ransom," according to the prosecutors.
The pair wasn't chosen randomly: In 2014, Balland co-founded Ledger, one of the leading companies in France's cryptocurrency sector. Its secure physical wallets, reputed to be particularly robust, are highly prized by investors – the company is valued at around €1.3 billion.
The company's co-founder and former CEO Eric Larchevêque, whom an online rumor had initially identified as the victim of the kidnapping, expressed his "immense relief" on social media Thursday evening after the release of the two victims, and extended his thanks to "the law enforcement agencies, with a special mention for the GIGN."
Opened on Tuesday by the Bourges prosecutor's office, then transferred to Paris and its national jurisdiction for the fight against organized crime, the investigation promised to be particularly complex from the outset. To send their ransom demand, sent to another Ledger co-founder, the kidnappers used a WhatsApp account linked to a telephone number in Southeast Asia, as well as a VPN (virtual private network), making them very difficult to track. The investigators decided to send a bitcoin (equivalent to around €100,000) to buy time and try to trace the transaction.
The arrest of a vehicle suspected by the Vierzon anti-criminality brigade gave the investigation a boost. Aboard the vehicle, which had been stolen, a man admitted to being part of the group that kidnapped the Balland couple. His phone was used to trace another phone, geolocated in Châteauroux, central France. When the GIGN intervened at the address where the cell phone was located, they found Balland alive but wounded: furious at not receiving the ransom, his kidnappers had cut off his finger and sent the video of the mutilation to Ledger.
His wife, however, was not at the scene. The search intensified, and a large force of 230 gendarmes, including 91 GIGN agents and specialized technical teams, was deployed. Eventually, by midday on Thursday, her trail was found in the town of Etampes, thanks to a combination of cross-checks. She was in a vehicle, tied up but in good health. The gendarmes arrested six suspects.
A total of 10 people, nine men and one woman aged between 20 and 40, were arrested. Most were already known to the police, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. A judicial investigation is due to be opened on Friday, January 24, on charges of kidnapping in an organized gang, accompanied by acts of torture or barbarism and extortion with weapons. These offenses are punishable by life imprisonment.
On December 31, 2024, the father, mother and sister of a French cryptocurrency influencer were kidnapped and held for several hours in eastern France – there too, a ransom was demanded. After the influencer raised the alarm, the gendarmes freed the mother and sister. Her father was found 24 hours after his abduction, 600 kilometers from home. Once again, it was a traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle that led to the discovery of the man, who had been tied up, doused with petrol and locked in the boot of a vehicle. No link has yet been established between the two cases.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.