Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur Targeted, Kidnappers Cut Off One of His Father's Fingers
According to CoinDesk, on May 4, the French prosecution stated that police successfully rescued a kidnapped man in the suburbs of Paris on the evening of the 3rd and arrested 5 suspects.
The kidnapped man's son is a cryptocurrency tycoon, and the suspects demanded a huge ransom, similar to a kidnapping case that occurred in France in January. The prosecution stated on the 4th that the victim was kidnapped on the morning of the 1st in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The police tracked his whereabouts and conducted an operation in Essonne in the southern suburbs of Paris on the evening of the 3rd to rescue him. The police arrested 5 suspects, all in their 20s, on charges of extortion.
The French newspaper Le Parisien reported that the kidnappers contacted the victim's son and sent a video of the victim's finger being cut off, demanding a ransom amounting to between 5 million and 7 million euros (approximately 41 million to 57.5 million yuan). A source told AFP that the kidnapped man's body had been mutilated, and if the police had not arrived in time, he could have suffered more serious injuries.
The kidnapped man's wife told investigators that her husband and son jointly operated a cryptocurrency trading platform in Malta and had previously also received threats.
On January 21 of this year, David Baran, co-founder of the cryptocurrency company Ledger, and his girlfriend were kidnapped at their home in the central French city of Vieillevigne. The kidnappers contacted another co-founder of the company to demand a huge ransom. Baran's body was also mutilated, and he was rescued the next day in the central French city of Châteauroux, while his girlfriend was also found and rescued in Essonne. Nine suspects are currently under criminal investigation for this case.
