PANews reported on May 5 that according to multiple French media reports, French police successfully rescued the father of a cryptocurrency millionaire through a coordinated raid last Saturday night (May 3). The victim was kidnapped in Paris last Thursday (May 1).
According to reports, the kidnappers demanded 5 million to 7 million euros worth of cryptocurrency as ransom from the victim's family after the kidnapping, and cut off one of the victim's fingers to put pressure on them. The police eventually located and rescued the victim in a rental property in the Essonne area south of Paris, and arrested five suspects in their twenties on the spot. The authorities confirmed that no ransom was paid before the rescue operation.
A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said the victim was the father of a businessman who made his fortune through cryptocurrency. The incident is the third cryptocurrency-related kidnapping in France this year and another example of a so-called "wrench attack" (that is, obtaining crypto assets through physical force and coercion), similar to the kidnapping of the co-founder of hardware wallet company Ledger in January this year.
