So it is no coincidence that today’s story takes place in Vierzon. Most of the co-founders no longer have an operational role, but remain closely tied to the company. And to each other. While Louvet still runs Coinhouse, Larchevêque, as we’ve seen, is in neither, and devotes himself instead to his own image, notably selling his advice. His stint on M6 has given him plenty of media exposure, which, incidentally, annoys many people close to the company, who accuse him off the record of rewriting history to suit himself, notably his role in Ledger’s success, and his departure. One early investor even calls him a “wannabe Niel”, a nod to the French telecoms billionaire who funds tech schools and start-up campuses, especially when I bring up ALGOSUP, the coding school he co-founded in Vierzon, or B³ Village by CA, a start-up incubator in the same town backed by Crédit Agricole, one of France’s biggest banks.
Thomas France stayed on the board but stepped back from operational duties in 2019 to focus on his VC activities. Nicolas Bacca left the company at the end of 2023 to co-run Le Centre in Marseille with Joël P. They were joined by the very discreet Vanessa R., who had worked in marketing and communications at Ledger, then at Orcel, David Balland’s studio, which she left in 2024.
But they all remain very close to this small provincial town (and to one another), which was thrown into turmoil a few days ago.
On Tuesday 21 January, very early, several armed men entered the property of David Balland and his partner Amandine, on the southern outskirts of Vierzon. Methodically, the men separated the couple and took them away. David Balland was driven towards Châteauroux, about an hour away, while his partner was held in the southern suburbs of Paris, and moved several times.
According to a police source, the aim was probably not to extract money from Balland himself, but rather from his business associates. Lured by the founders’ crypto? By the supposed value and wealth of Ledger? No idea, at this stage.
Barely had they arrived at the place where he was held when one of the kidnappers cut off one of Balland’s fingers, while another filmed the scene. A first message saying Balland had been captured was sent to Larchevêque. Then he received a horrific video showing Balland’s mutilation, with a message demanding a little over €10M in Bitcoin.
Stunned, Larchevêque contacted the authorities very quickly. The Bourges public prosecutor’s office took up the case and opened a judicial investigation into “kidnapping and unlawful confinement by an organised gang in order to obtain the fulfilment of a condition”. As the case looked very serious, it eventually handed it over to the Paris JIRS13, which quickly opened negotiations with the kidnappers. At the same time, the gendarmerie’s investigative units in Bourges and Paris were brought in, along with the Unité nationale cyber, the national cyber unit of the Gendarmerie Nationale, France’s military police force. The GIGN, its elite hostage-rescue unit, from Tours, joined by the team from Versailles-Satory, stood ready to move in on the area.
With so many people involved, the news leaked as early as Tuesday afternoon. Locally at first, because a major police deployment was taking place around the victims’ house and in Vierzon. But soon several Paris sources were mentioning Ledger’s name, while asking for absolute silence in exchange for the information. Almost immediately the Ledger/Vierzon link was made, and Eric Larchevêque’s name began to circulate through a misreading. Yet the same sources came back to the front, several times, explicitly asking several media outlets (including Zero Bullshit) not to spread the news.
But on Tuesday evening, during the night, Antoine Bailleron and Geoffroy Jeay of the regional daily Berry Républicain14 decided to publish the story, which was also picked up by L’Écho Républicain, apparently with the approval of the local prosecutor. At that point, my Paris source was fuming.
“It’s completely insane, and completely reckless. Since the assault on the Hyper Cacher [my note: the 2015 Paris supermarket hostage siege, when the news channel BFM TV revealed where people were hiding] I thought nobody would ever dare do that again. The journalists actually gave the town where the kidnapping happened, the address of an operation, then the victim’s name.”
Personally, I’ll admit I didn’t even consider reporting it, and at this point at least four newsrooms that also had the information had decided not to publish.
Only once the release of David Balland and his partner was confirmed, on Thursday shortly before noon, did most media publish the articles they already had ready.