Ten suspects have been arrested for the kidnapping of David Balland and his wife and seven of them must be indicted. But these individuals would only be performers recruited by a sponsor still wanted.
It is a story worthy of an action film – or horror. The co -founder of the Ledger cryptocurrency company, David Balland, and his wife, were kidnapped on Tuesday January 21 and sequestrated for 24 and 48 hours respectively. A ransom was requested in exchange for their release and the finger of the entrepreneur was mutilated to put pressure. The couple was finally found by the GIGN, but all the light has not yet been made on this case. Behind this kidnapping and sequestration could be a “very organized” criminal operation and possibly having ramifications abroad.
“Ten people were arrested” for the removal of David Balland, said Marie-Laure Pezant, spokesperson for the gendarmerie, at the microphone of Franceinfo. These are nine men and a woman, according to Le Figaroaged between 20 and 40 years. Some are also known to justice “, in particular for common law crime,” said the gendarme. Three of the people arrested were released at the end of their police custody this Friday, January 24, their link with the vast removal operation having not been established. The other seven individuals must be presented before an investigating judge in Paris for an indictment. According to the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, cited in The pointthe suspects will be continued for sequestration in a band organized in order to obtain the payment of a ransom in cryptocurrency, with act of torture. They incur perpetuity prison.
The sponsor always sought
Despite these arrests, the investigation is still underway. The first elements suggest that those arrested were simple performers of a contract recruited by one or more sponsors (s) still unknown. This is the preferred track and reported by the police spokesperson, Marie-Laure Pézant: “Now, we also have to go back to the sponsors.” Who are they? “The investigations are underway,” said the spokesperson, but the sponsors’ track abroad is possible. It is even suggested by the location of the bank accounts on which the ransom was to be paid, which were in Morocco according to information from Parisian. “This is why it is important to work in cooperation with the international,” she continued.
The clues concerning the person or the group behind the kidnapping of the investor David Balland are still rare. While the project of the little hands recruited and arrested are becoming clearer. With one exception, all suspects are men aged 20 to 40. They come from different French departments-Seine-Saint-Denis, Essonne, Paris or the Bouches-du-Rhône for one of them-and did not know each other before the start of the criminal operation. These individuals with the profiles of small offenders, in particular “jobbeurs” for drug trafficking, said during their hearings that they were recruited by the chief (s) of the operation on social networks and regardless of each other. Even the missions to be carried out by everyone for removal and forcible confinement were given individually to each suspect reports Le Parisien. Some had to remove the victims, others watch them when they were hostages, some were trying to drive stolen vehicles … The only woman’s woman’s mission would have been to recover the keys to the house rented on Airbnb to kidnap the couple and other buildings and supply other suspects.
What happened
The police managed to release David Balland on Wednesday, January 22: 230 gendarmes were mobilized during an “exceptional” operation, just like the GIGN with 90 agents and “the Cyber national unit to make digital investigations”, reported the gendarme. “At the start, we know that there are two people who were removed, but we do not know where they are, if they are still in France, if they left abroad, we have nothing and in 48 hours, we put all our local, national means and we manage to find them. “
David Balland was selected in the agglomeration of Châteauroux (Indre). A ransom of several million euros was requested in cryptocurrency. The finger of the entrepreneur was cut and sent to his relatives, in particular the co -founder of Ledger Éric Larchevêque, to put pressure on them and demand the ransom. A party was paid in cryptocurrency – the spokesperson for the gendarmerie did not reveal the amount – but the payment was frozen by the police. David Balland’s wife was found on Thursday, tied up in the trunk of a car in Étampes (Essonne).