There have been a series of kidnappings in western Europe targeting cryptocurrency tycoons with huge ransom demands and sometimes gruesome results.
At least four kidnappings of wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneurs and their families have occurred in the last six months across France, Spain and Belgium, with attempts made to extort these individuals for tens of millions of dollars.
A 60-year-old man who owns a cryptocurrency marketing firm with his son was kidnapped on a Paris street earlier this month by masked attackers who forced him into a van, as reported by The Guardian.
The man was held captive for several days, with the kidnappers cutting off his finger and demanding a ransom of between $9 million and $12 million from his son, according to French daily newspaper Le Parisien.
The man was found by police days later and rescued, with the ransom not paid.
“The victim appears to be the father of a man who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies, with the crime involving a ransom demand,” the French state prosecutor said.
Crypto kingpins targeted
It’s another in a series of similar attacks against cryptocurrency figures typically with significant online followings, in Europe in recent months.
In January the co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Ledger, David Balland, was kidnapped along with his partner from a home in central France.
Balland’s finger was also cut off by the attackers and was sent to his business partner along with a video demanding a ransom of about $17.5 million.
The cryptocurrency influencer was soon rescued by police, with nine suspects now under investigation in relation to the crime.
Ledger provides hardware wallets for secure cryptocurrency storage and is worth nearly $2 billion.
Late last year, the 56-year-old father of a French cryptocurrency influencer was kidnapped in eastern France, with the son soon receiving a ransom demand. The man was discovered alive a day later in the boot of a car in Normandy.
In December last year, four men kidnapped the wife of a cryptocurrency millionaire in Belgium, and fled towards the coast in a car.
They were quickly arrested and the woman rescued.
And in February this year a cryptocurrency broker was extorted for more than $50,000 after a chance meeting in Spain.
The broker was invited to an apartment then told to hand over more than $50,000 in cryptocurrency from his client’s accounts or be tortured and even killed.
After pretending to call a customer, the man instead called a friend in London and, speaking in Hindi, told him he was being kidnapped.
After authorities were alerted, the man was found by Spanish police.
Three British men were arrested over the incident.
Crypto crimes
It comes after one of the biggest cryptocurrency hacks in history earlier this year, with about $2.4 billion in digital assets taken from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit by suspected North Korean criminals.
It’s been labelled as the “biggest cryptocurrency heist ever recorded”, with the attackers believed to have manipulated a routine transaction between two cryptocurrency wallets to gain control of billions of dollars in Ethereum.
Mid-last year the Australian promoter of a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme was placed on a three-year good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to one charge of providing financial services without a licence.
And late last year, the Australian Federal Police seized more than $9 million in cryptocurrency linked to the accused mastermind of a communications app allegedly used by organised crime figures.
The app, Ghost, was “built solely for the criminal underworld”, police alleged, and was used around the globe.
The cryptocurrency was found after a specialist analysed devices from the man’s home and deciphered the so-called “seed phrase” needed to access his crypto wallet.
