Your Bitcoin or your life: French cryptomiljonaires are the target of criminals

Criminal France has a new target: cryptomiljonaires. In recent months, several French people who have become rich in the crypto world or their family members have been abducted. Several attempts for kidnapping have also been made. The criminals do not hesitate to use violence and are out for one thing: to pay for millions of euros in ransom – in Crypto.

The first case dates from the end of January. Then founder of crypto company Ledger became David Balland And his girlfriend at their home in the centrally located city of Vierzon robbed. The kidnappers moved the duo to nearby Châteauroux, put her in a trunk, cut him off a finger. The criminals sent their finger to Balland’s colleagues and asked 10 million euros in ransom. A part was transferred, but could be blocked, thanks to the cooperation of the publisher of the used crypto coin (the Stablecoin USDT). Balland and his partner were released after two days by the police, who picked up ten people.

Two weeks later in Paris The father of a crypto entrepreneur abducted-he also missed a finger when he was liberated by the police two days later; 5 to 7 million euros had been demanded for his release. And in mid -May it was almost hit again when criminals tried to kidnap the pregnant daughter and grandson of the Cryptoplatform Paymium in broad daylight in Paris in Paris. On videos You can see how three most of the men throw the wife and her child on the floor and try to push in a van. They could escape thanks to bystanders.

The last – thwarted – attempt dates from last Monday, reported French news channel RTL. More than ten people were arrested near the eastern Nantes, they would have had plans to kidnap someone from the crypto world later that day. The same day, the police arrested about twenty people elsewhere in the country who would have been involved in the (attempts to) kidnapping. There may be one person or organization behind the various issues: the police have according to the newspaper Le Parisien a French-Moroccan forties in the sight. He would recruit young people from Morocco via social media – the suspects were born between 2002 and 2009 – for the jobs.

Crypto currency are attractive for criminals, because international transactions are going lightning fast and walking outside of banks

Masks

Crypto currencies are attractive to criminals, because international transactions are going lightning fast and walking outside of banks. So there is no body such as a bank that can be called by the police and that has information about sender and recipient.

Incidentally, a large part of the crypto transactions nowadays go through fairs and part of it does participate in the investigation. Crypto transactions are public and therefore to search online. It often manages to locate the ‘money’, but not always to find out the identity of the recipient and even less often to pick it up and continue it. The cryptocurrency is generally converted into traditional currency using money laundering services that are offered on the Darkweb.

The relative anonymity of crypto possession is cherished within the sector. That is regularly practical, for example because criminals use it, but also ideologically. Within the crypto community there is a view that money should be something neutral, without central authorities who interfere with it and banks that earn it. Bitcoin’s owners in particular (the oldest and largest crypto coin) try to remain unknown. As a rule, this works well because they mainly operate online and there are only Aliassen and the addresses of their wallets (a kind of account number). At conferences, a few even rise with a mask. The reason for this has been given the risk of threats and abductions for years.

Not many examples of this are known in the Netherlands. The founders of the oldest bitcoin fair in the Netherlands, Bitonic, who received bullet letters are the exception. The sender has been arrested and convicted.

Bitcoin owners in Telegram groups: ‘Do not sit down on birthdays’

When the Bitcoin race in December this year exceeded $ 100,000 for the first time, the party was among Bitcoin owners. But they also warned each other in Telegram channels, among other things: « don’t sit down on birthdays. » With the underlying idea that it is not smart to draw attention to your ability.

Unintentionally, that is nevertheless increasingly happening. In the Quote 100, published this week, with young millionaires, there are various cryptomiljonaires. The crypto entrepreneurs generally end up in the kind of overviews through information that becomes known through traditional channels about their assets. For example, because the acquisition sum of their company has been in the news.

What they possess in crypto is often much less known, although it is likely that there is a large part of their assets. This week the Bitcoin race even exceeded $ 110,000. Incidentally, many other crypto currencies do a lot less well.

Priority for emergency number

The French government shows that it finds the safety of this new group of millionaires important, probably not least because President Emmanuel Macron wants France to be an attractive and therefore safe destination for tech entrepreneurs. Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleeau, who likes to act as strict crimefighterhas consulted with top people from the crypto world and some « Prevention and protection measures » announced. For example, the crypto bosses must be given priority if they call emergency number 17 and the security services will check the security of their houses.

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