Police rescued the father of a wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur from kidnappers on Saturday evening.
The victim, whose name has not been released, was abducted in Paris after sunrise on Thursday by men in balaclavas who forced him into a delivery van.
The son received a ransom demand which French media reported was in the €5-7 million range.
Police rescued the victim from a residence in Essonne department immediately south of the capital, arresting four suspects in their twenties at or near the scene.
A fifth suspect who was driving a vehicle used in the kidnapping also was arrested on Saturday, and two additional suspects were arrested the next day.
Police reportedly located the kidnappers by tracing their cell phone calls.
The victim was hospitalized with unspecified injuries. French media reported that the kidnappers cut off one of his fingers.
Seemingly confirming the mutilation, prosecutors said possible charges include kidnapping “with torture or a barbaric act.”
The case was similar to but lower profile than the 21 January kidnapping of David Balland, one of eight co-founders of prominent French crypto security company Ledger.
Balland and his wife were seized from their home in the Mereau in the Loire region.
They were driven to different places and held captive separately, according to prosecutors.
The kidnappers contacted another Ledger co-founder with a cryptocurrency ransom demand, part of which was paid, prosecutors said.
Over 90 operators of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (French abbr: GIGN), one of France’s most elite tactical police units, participated in a 22 January rescue operation in which Balland was freed and two arrests were made.
Balland’s wife was found tied up in a car but unharmed on 23 January.
Prosecutors said one of Balland’s hands was mutilated.
A source close to the case told the media that the kidnappers severed a finger and sent a video of it along with the ransom demand to another Ledger co-founder, who immediately informed police.
Eight additional suspects, most of them previously known to police but not linked to specific gangs, were detained for questioning late on 23 January in the central city of Chateauroux and in Etampes in the Paris region.
Ledger said nearly all the cryptocurrency paid to the kidnappers was traced, frozen and seized.
The company also said that Balland left it in 2021 and retained no role.
Ledger is a world leader in digital wallets and vaults to safeguard crypto assets.
Kidnapping for ransom is not common in France but does occur.
The crypto industry inherently attracts criminals because it largely is unregulated and cryptocurrencies are difficult to trace.
Senior corporate executives in all sectors should take reasonable precautions against kidnapping.
