French police rescued the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire in a nighttime raid after he was abducted earlier this week, the prosecutor’s office said Sunday.
The prosecutor’s office said police located the hostage in a house in the Essonne region south of Paris and freed the man on Saturday night.
It said he was treated for injuries, but gave no details. French media reported that alleged hostage-takers cut off one of the man’s fingers.
Police detained five people in connection with the incident and the prosecutor’s office said the police investigation was looking at an array of possible criminal charges, including kidnapping “with torture or a barbaric act.”
The abduction appears to be yet another incident in a recent criminal trend in France where cryptocurrency millionaires are held hostage for ransom.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau hailed the “decisive” police operation to free the man in a message posted to X.
Ransom amount reportedly several million dollars
A police source told the AFP news agency that the alleged hostage-takers wore ski masks and took the man into a delivery van on Thursday.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that the kidnappers demanded a ransom of between €5 million and €7 million (or between $5.7 million and $7.9 million).
The the identity of the man taken hostage, the identity of his son and other specific details have been withheld by the prosecutor’s office.
Police rescue Ledger co-founder and his wife in January
In January, a French police unit that specializes in hostage situations freed a co-founder of a crypto-wallet firm after he was abducted along with his wife from their home in Vierzon.
The head of the police unit that freed the couple, David Balland, a founder of crypto wallet firm Ledger, along with his wife, told reporters later the operation was a complicated effort that involved more than 200 officers.
The French prosecutor at the time said Balland was hospitalized because of a “mutilation” inflicted by the kidnappers to his hand. His wife was found tied up in a vehicle.
Edited by: Zac Crellin
