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# Ledgers Co-Creator Unshackled After Abduction; French Authorities Pursue Perpetrators
* David Balland is recuperating from the harrowing ordeal.
* The kidnappers, according to prosecutors, sought a cryptocurrency payment.
* The abduction underscores the escalating pattern of crypto-linked offenses.
David Balland, the co-founder of Ledger, a widely-used cryptocurrency wallet company, has been set free following a roughly one-day captivity. This event serves as a harsh lesson about the dangers linked to the expanding realm of cryptocurrency.
As per reports, Balland was seized on Tuesday in Vierzon, a city in central France, by a well-coordinated kidnapping group.
The Paris prosecutor’s department declared that he was freed after the abductors requested an undisclosed sum of cryptocurrency as a payoff. He is presently undergoing medical care.
It’s uncertain if the ransom was given. Authorities have not revealed specifics about Balland’s injuries.
Ledger’s CEO, Pascal Gauthier, mentioned on Thursday, “Our primary concern has consistently been to enable law enforcement to carry out their duties and preserve the investigation’s integrity.”
“We comply with law enforcement’s requests to safeguard crucial details of the ongoing inquiry and value the press members’ cooperation in this regard.”
Éric Larchevêque, another co-founder of Ledger, also voiced his profound satisfaction with Balland’s release and expressed gratitude to law enforcement for their efforts.
## Inquiry
The inquiry into the abduction is being spearheaded by the GIGN, a special operations division of the French National Gendarmerie, in conjunction with the Paris prosecutor’s office’s cybercrime and organized crime divisions.
Ledger, established in 2014, offers offline hardware tools that cryptocurrency users can utilize to securely store their cryptocurrencies. The company was appraised at $1.4 billion based on its most recent financial round.
Worldwide, violent crimes involving cryptocurrency are becoming increasingly prevalent. This event highlights the necessity for enhanced security protocols and vigilance within the crypto sphere.
In the past month, an American tribunal convicted Remy Saint-Felix, aged 24, for orchestrating a “theft ring” that preyed on cryptocurrency proprietors across four states through aggressive residential intrusions.
The United States Department of Justice announced that in April of the year 2023, Saint-Felix, residing in West Palm Beach, Florida, alongside his partners, “attacked and restrained sufferers with cable ties, aiming firearms at them, while menacing them and their partners with additional brutality, as other confederates moved over $150,000 in digital currency from the accounts of the sufferers.”
*Revised on January 24th to incorporate remarks from Ledger administrators.*
Liam Kelly serves as a journalist situated in Berlin for DL News. Possess a suggestion? Get in touch with him via [email protected]. Ben Weiss functions as a journalist based in Dubai for DL News. Have a suggestion? Contact him at [email protected].
