The daughter and grandson of a French CEO of Crypto Exchange were targeted in a failed abduction attempt, adding to the growing number of abduction cases linked to crypto in the country, France 24 reported on Tuesday.
A widely shared video on social networks showed the attempt, in which three masked men fought women and another person on the ground in Paris. A store owner intervened, waving a fire extinguisher, and the attackers abandoned, who roam two pending van. France 24 identified the exchange of crypto as Paymium.
The attack follows earlier – successful – kidnappings in the country. In January, David Ballard, co-founder of the developer of the Crypto-Wallet Ledger, was ransomed after being kidnapped with his wife from their home. In May, the father of a French crypto millionaire was kidnapped and rescued a few days later. Four suspects were arrested at the time, the BBC reported. The two men had a cut finger.
The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, said on Wednesday that he planned to meet French cryptographic entrepreneurs to discuss how to protect them as a result of the wave of kidnappers targeting rich people with cryptos in France. The Paris prosecutors’ office opened an investigation into the attack, Reuters reported.
“These units within the law enforcement agencies were in fact very successful, the holding of these people to be reported in these cases of kidnapping,” the CEO of Chainalysy, Jonathan Levin, said on Wednesday in response to a question on world kidnapping for the trend of ransom. “I think the message needs to convey so that these payments are traceable.”
