A founder of a French cryptocurrency company and his wife were released this week in France after being brutally kidnapped and held for ransom, authorities said Thursday.
David Balland, founder of Ledgera company that sells physical devices for storing crypto assets, was kidnapped Tuesday morning alongside his wife from their home in Vierzon, a town in central France, according to the Paris prosecutor. The couple was taken by car, then separated and detained in different locations, the prosecutor said.
The kidnapping sparked a massive investigation involving more than 230 police officers who sought to find the couple. Ultimately, they released them without firing a shot, authorities said at a news conference in Paris on Thursday evening.
“This is an extremely complex case,” said General Ghislain Réty, head of an elite hostage rescue unit that freed the couple.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the kidnappers contacted another Ledger founder and demanded payment of a large ransom in cryptocurrency. She said investigators were still establishing the total amount they had requested.
The company alerted the gendarmerie, the police in small towns and rural and peri-urban areas of France. French media that learned of the investigation were asked to refrain from publishing details so as not to endanger the couple’s safety.
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