{"id":20700,"date":"2025-01-28T13:02:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T11:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ransom-demanded-for-kidnapped-ledger-co-founder-revealed\/"},"modified":"2025-01-28T13:02:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T11:02:56","slug":"ransom-demanded-for-kidnapped-ledger-co-founder-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ransom-demanded-for-kidnapped-ledger-co-founder-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ransom Demanded for Kidnapped Ledger Co-Founder Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The kidnappers of Ledger co-founder David Balland in France demanded a ransom of \u20ac10 million ($10.4 million), according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leparisien.fr\/faits-divers\/doigts-910-sur-x-david-balland-revient-avec-humour-sur-son-spectaculaire-enlevement-26-01-2025-PUIVCEO5LJF4JPMH37F353DZNI.php\">Le Parisien<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a bid to expedite the payment, the criminals severed one of the businessman&#8217;s fingers and sent a video of the act to Balland&#8217;s colleague, Eric Larchev\u00eaque. Investigators permitted Larchev\u00eaque to transfer part of the ransom, which facilitated further negotiations and helped trace the attackers&#8217; location.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, most of the cryptocurrency was frozen and confiscated.<\/p>\n<p>Not particularly active on social media, Balland updated his <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/morveus\">X profile<\/a> after his release, humorously noting &#8220;2025 Kidnapping Championship&#8221; and &#8220;Fingers: 9\/10.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also retweeted a post featuring a screenshot of transactions from his captors&#8217; wallet, showing 27 unsuccessful attempts to withdraw the blocked USDT.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">Le ravisseur dans l&#8217;affaire Ledger \u00e0 essay\u00e9 de retirer 27 fois ses USDT en vain?<\/p>\n<p>Peut \u00eatre d&#8217;ici quelques d\u00e9cennies les gens comprendront que le cash c&#8217;est plus simple \u00e0 cacher que des USD sur la blockchain <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9XFeAbrdPf\">pic.twitter.com\/9XFeAbrdPf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Irboz(???arc) (@irboz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/irboz\/status\/1883154748087706098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, police arrested 10 suspects in connection with the case. On January 24, seven of them were charged with criminal conspiracy to kidnap, unlawful detention with torture, and extortion.<\/p>\n<p>During interrogations, the suspects claimed they were merely executors and logisticians.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation is ongoing. The kidnappers face life imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Back on January 21, Balland and his wife were abducted early in the morning from their home in the Cher department. The businessman was then transported by car to another location, where he was held and a large sum in cryptocurrency was demanded.<\/p>\n<p>The rescue operation involved the GIGN anti-terrorist unit. On the evening of January 22, the victim was taken to a hospital for medical treatment. His wife was found the next day in a van, unharmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The kidnappers of Ledger co-founder David Balland in France demanded a ransom of \u20ac10 million ($10.4 million), according to Le Parisien. In a bid to expedite the payment, the criminals severed one of the businessman&#8217;s fingers and sent a video of the act to Balland&#8217;s colleague, Eric Larchev\u00eaque. Investigators permitted Larchev\u00eaque to transfer part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,134,1640,1245],"class_list":["post-20700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-france","tag-ledger","tag-tether-usdt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"60","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}