Credit: X
The CEO of a major cryptocurrency firm’s daughter and grandson managed to flee an attempted kidnapping during a bold daytime attack in Paris.
A clip verified by a source near the case depicts a man and a woman strolling with their child along Rue Pache in Paris’ 11th district around 8 AM on Tuesday morning.
A van, seemingly displaying a counterfeit Chronopost emblem, pulls up, and three masked people try to push the mother and her son inside. According to a source, the man accompanying them stepped in and was assaulted “with improvised weapons.”
The woman took hold of the handgun owned by the assailants and tossed it aside. It was revealed later that the semiautomatic pistol, left behind, was actually an Airsoft gun, according to the source.
The cries of the victims ultimately drew attention from pedestrians, and a nearby resident tossed a fire extinguisher at the assailants, causing them to flee using their vehicle.
The van was discovered a short distance away, approximately a few hundred meters down Rue Saint-Maur.
The three individuals were transported to the hospital for treatment of slight injuries.
The anticrime division of Paris’s judicial police has been summoned to look into the case.
Based on early insights, the female individual and her male child are identified as the offspring and grandchild of Pierre Noizat, who serves as the CEO and co-founder of Paymium, a French cryptocurrency exchange established in 2011. This company positions itself as one of Europe’s trailblazers in Bitcoin transactions.
Mr. Noizat’s wealth is not public knowledge, yet he is a graduate of École Polytechnique and an early supporter of Bitcoin as well as a dedicated promoter of the contentious digital currency.
The firm asserts to be “the globe’s eldest cryptocurrency-to-traditional currency trading platform” and came into existence in 2011.
Kidnaps for cryptocurrency
This marks the most recent among several abduction efforts carried out by Mafia groups aiming to extort Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from owners in France and across Europe.
Earlier this month, a
60-year-old Frenchman
suffered an attack where one of his fingers was cut off by assailants demanding a ransom from his crypto-millionaire son. According to Le Parisien, the criminals requested a payment ranging between €5 million and €7 million, but their demand went unmet.
The unidentified man was snatched in daylight as he strolled through Paris’s 14th arrondissement. Four individuals wearing ski masks pushed him into a delivery van.
Following his detention for over two days, armed law enforcement officers released him from a house located south of Paris, where five suspects in their twenties were taken into custody.
In January,
David Balland
The co-founder of the cryptocurrency company Ledger, which has a valuation exceeding $1 billion, was kidnapped along with his companion from their residence in Méreau, located close to Bourges in central France. During the incident, one of his fingers was severed.
The police were informed by Mr. Balland’s business associate, who got a video of the severed finger along with a demand for a substantial ransom in cryptocurrency, amounting to approximately €10 million.
Mr. Balland was swiftly released during a police operation, and his companion was located the next day. There are nine individuals currently facing criminal charges in connection with this incident.
Recent reports have highlighted other kidnappings involving cryptocurrency individuals or their spouses in both Spain and Belgium.
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