PARIS: Twenty-five people, including six minors, were charged in Paris over a spate of kidnappings and attempted abductions of top figures in France's cryptocurrency world, prosecutors said on Saturday.
“Eighteen people have been placed in pre-trial detention, three have requested a deferred hearing, and four have been placed under judicial supervision,“ the Paris public prosecutor’s office said, adding that the suspects were aged between 16 and 23.
The investigation into “attempted kidnapping by an organised gang” centres on a May 13 kidnapping attempt targeting the daughter and grandson of the chief executive officer of crypto firm Paymium, carried out in broad daylight in eastern Paris.
Prosecutors said the probe also covers “other unsuccessful plans”, including an initial failed attempt on the same targets the day before, and a disrupted operation near the western city of Nantes on Monday.
Authorities said this week they had thwarted the Nantes abduction and detained more than 20 suspects in connection with that plot and the one targeting Paymium boss Pierre Noizat's family.
Footage of that attempted abduction shared on social media showed four masked men attacking Noizat's daughter, her husband and their child in the French capital's 11th district in mid-May.
All three suffered light injuries and were taken to hospital.
Noizat later praised his “heroic” son-in-law and a man who used a red fire extinguisher to fend off the attackers.
According to a source close to the case, it was while investigating that abduction attempt that the police discovered the new plot near Nantes.
Most of the suspects were born in France and others in Senegal, Angola and Russia.
- 'Very young' suspects -
Among those arrested so far are suspects accused of involvement in carrying out the abductions and more senior figures believed to be involved in logistics, according to sources close to the case.
Ambroise Vienet-Legue, who represents an 18-year-old suspect in the Nantes plot, described the accused as “very young”, lured by money and out of their depth.
“My client admitted to being a fuse in a criminal machine” and deeply regrets it, he said.
Another lawyer welcomed the court's recognition of the defendants' age -- some are as young as 16 -- noting that judges had considered the protections granted to minors.
The kidnappings and abduction attempts have become a major embarrassment for the French government and have sparked concern about the security of wealthy crypto tycoons, who have notched up immense fortunes from the booming alternative currency business.
One prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur urged authorities to “stop the Mexicanisation of France” -- a reference to kidnappings by violent organised crime groups.
The spate of abductions began in January, when kidnappers seized French crypto boss David Balland and his partner. Balland co-founded the crypto firm Ledger, valued at the time at more than $1 billion.
Balland's kidnappers cut off his finger and demanded a hefty ransom. He was freed the next day, and his girlfriend was found tied up in the boot of a car outside Paris.
In mid-May, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau held an emergency meeting with cryptocurrency leaders, with the ministry announcing plans to bolster their security.
