We must jointly take measures to protect them
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called an emergency meeting with cryptocurrency professionals to address a disturbing rise in kidnappings targeting crypto entrepreneurs and their families.
The meeting, set for Friday, comes after a failed kidnapping attempt in broad daylight on Tuesday in Paris’s 11th district. Four armed, masked men attacked a couple and their child, who escaped with minor injuries. The woman is the daughter of the CEO and co-founder of Paymium, a French cryptocurrency exchange.
Retailleau told Europe 1/CNews, “I will assemble businesspeople working in cryptocurrencies to work with them on their security, and so that they become aware of the risks.”
The incident follows the January abduction of Ledger co-founder David Balland, who had a finger severed during captivity. In May, attackers abducted a man to extort his crypto-millionaire son.
“We must jointly take measures to protect them,” Retailleau said. “But we will also find the perpetrators wherever they may be, perhaps even abroad.”