TechFlow News, February 3: According to Dlnews, French police have arrested three men in their twenties suspected of kidnapping and torturing a 74-year-old man in an attempt to extort $3.5 million worth of cryptocurrency from his son.
The suspects allegedly kidnapped the victim from his home in Valence, Isère—a department in southeastern France—at around midnight on January 25, and subjected him to 16 hours of torture, including cutting off fingers and slashing his face. The kidnappers sent videos of the torture to the victim’s son via encrypted messaging apps, demanding a ransom payment.
However, upon discovering that the victim’s son was not the “cryptocurrency millionaire” they had mistakenly believed him to be—but rather a web developer with no significant cryptocurrency holdings—the suspects released the victim at 11 p.m. that same day.
