Crypto exchange CEO’s daughter fights off brazen kidnappers in Paris

Disclaimer: This article contains a video that may be disturbing for some readers.

A brazen attempt to kidnap the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium, was foiled after the daughter and passersby reportedly fought off the kidnappers.

Three masked men attacked Noizat’s daughter and a male partner on May 13 while she was walking with her son in Paris’ 11th district. The assailants tried to force Noizat’s daughter and her son into a waiting van, the French state-owned media outlet France24 reported on May 13.

The accompanying male partner was assaulted when he tried to intervene, but Noizat’s daughter resisted and managed to take one of the guns off an assailant in a scuffle and throw it away, police said.

En plein Paris, un homme a été violenté par des individus cagoulés, habillés tout en noir. Ils tentaient de l'enlever. Un homme a surgi, extincteur à la main, pour les faire fuir. →https://t.co/P0qV6PR40v pic.twitter.com/9f4r2Gi7ho

Eventually, people passing by intervened, and the masked assailants fled in the van, which was found nearby. All three victims suffered injuries and were taken to a local hospital.

Local outlet Le Parisien reported that the botched daylight kidnapping is being investigated by the Brigade for the Suppression of Banditry, a special police unit of the French Ministry of the Interior.

Michael Englander, co-founder and CEO of Polish crypto exchange Plasbit, says this incident should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of the industry.

“If you’re in crypto and still flaunting it online, you’re not just stupid, you’re putting your family in danger,” he said in a May 13 post to X.

Crypto-focused lawyer Sasha Hodder said on X that “crypto theft is evolving. It’s not just social engineering or SIM swaps anymore.”

In May, Las Vegas police said three teenagers had allegedly kidnapped a man at gunpoint who was returning from a local crypto event and robbed him of $4 million in crypto and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

On May 3, Paris police freed the father of a crypto entrepreneur who was held for several days in connection with a 7 million euro ($7.8 million) kidnapping plot.

At the start of the year, David Balland, co-founder of crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger, was abducted from his home in central France during the early hours of Jan. 21. He was held captive until a police operation on the night of Jan. 22 secured his release. 

Related: Crypto broker breaks ankles while fleeing kidnappers in Spain

Jameson Lopp, a cypherpunk and co-founder of self-custodial firm Casa, has created a list on GitHub recording dozens of offline crypto robberies, with 22 incidents of in-person crypto-related theft so far this year.

A University of Cambridge study in September found these so-called “wrench attacks” are often underreported due to revictimization fears and involve a diverse group of attackers ranging from organized crime groups to friends and family.

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