The founder of a French cryptocurrency company and his wife were released in France this week after being brutally kidnapped and held for ransom, authorities announced Thursday.
David Balland, the founder of Ledger, a company that sells physical assets to store crypto assets, was kidnapped along with his wife early Tuesday from their home in Vierzon, a city in central France, according to a Paris prosecutor. The couple was taken by car, then separated and detained in different places, said the prosecutor.
The kidnapping started an intensive investigation involving more than 230 police officers who wanted to find the couple. In the end, they freed them without firing a shot, authorities said at a press conference in Paris on Thursday evening.
“This was a very complicated case,” said General Ghislain Réty, the head of the special unit working to rescue the hostages that freed the couple.
The prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, said that the kidnappers contacted another founder of Ledger and demanded that a large ransom be paid using cryptocurrency. He said the investigators are still finding out how much money they have requested.
The company informs the gendarmerie, the police in small towns and in rural and urban areas in France. French media outlets, which have been tight-lipped about the investigation, have been urged to refrain from publishing details to avoid jeopardizing the couple’s safety.
The police immediately found Mr. Balland in Châteauroux, about 30 miles southwest of his home, and released him on Wednesday. He was hospitalized due to the “mutilation” of his hand by the kidnappers, said Ms. Beccuau.
An official with knowledge of the investigation, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case, said the kidnappers sent a picture of Mr. Balland mutilated to suppress the company.
Part of the ransom was paid during the interview with the kidnappers, Ms. Beccuau said. “Almost all of that cryptocurrency was tracked, intercepted and seized,” he said.
On Thursday, by using surveillance of other suspects, analysis of phone records and questioning of several people who have already been arrested, the investigators found the wife of Mr. Balland in Étampes, about 80 kilometers north of Vierzon.
The police found him tied up in the car but unhurt, said Ms. Becuau.
In total, nine men and one woman, aged 20 to 40, have been arrested to investigate the kidnapping, said Ms Beccuau. He did not identify them or provide details about their involvement, only saying that they are from different cities and have criminal records. The police are not known to be part of organized crime, he said.
Pascal Gauthier, Ledger’s chief executive, wrote on social media on Thursday that he was “very relieved.”
“The most important thing for us was to allow law enforcement to do their jobs and protect the integrity of the investigation,” said Mr. Gautier. “We have respected the law’s requests to protect information important to the ongoing investigation and we appreciate members of the media doing the same.”
Ledger, a prominent startup valued at more than $1 billion, was founded in 2014 and has sold more than six million units since then, according to the company’s website. It has more than 700 employees in Europe, Asia and the United States, the company said.
Éric Larchevêque, the company’s co-founder and TV personality who appeared on the French equivalent of “Shark Tank,” expressed “great relief and great joy” on social media after Mr. Balland and his wife.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into charges of kidnapping and holding someone against their will as part of an organized gang in exchange for something; acts of harassment; and armed robbery. Those crimes can carry life sentences, Ms. Beccuau said.
This case echoes the one reported by the French media this month where a man and his family were caught by a group that wanted to blackmail his son, a cryptocurrency promoter living in Dubai. They were released, but no arrests have been made in the case, according to news reports.
At the moment, the investigators have not confirmed the relationship between the two cases, said Ms. Beccuau.
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