Ex-Partner of Alleged Crypto Kidnapping Mastermind Charged with Money Laundering

Under police surveillance for about a year, the 24-year-old woman, mother of a one-and-a-half-year-old child she had with the Franco-Moroccan Badiss Bajjou, was arrested on June 5 near Orléans (Loiret) by investigators from the Versailles anti-gang brigade. The suspect was placed in police custody. 600 euros in cash were found during the search of her home, reports Le Parisien.

During her hearings, the accused admitted to having benefited from several money transfers from her ex-partner to finance the detention of her cousin, also a suspect in the case. She also confessed that she communicated with Badiss Bajjou via the encrypted messaging app Signal and that she traveled to Morocco about ten times with her son so he could see his father. But the young woman claims to no longer have any relationship with this man. Their only connection would be this shared child.

Badiss Bajjou resided in Versailles before fleeing to Morocco. Listed by French police for organized theft, drug possession, extortion, pimping, and armed robbery, the Franco-Moroccan was subject to several international arrest warrants for attempted homicide and extortion by an organized gang. He is suspected of being the mastermind behind the series of kidnappings recorded in recent months in the cryptocurrency world in France.

The man arrested on Tuesday, June 3 in Tangier is also allegedly involved in the kidnapping of a 56-year-old woman, mother of a wealthy entrepreneur from Yvelines in July 2023, as well as in the kidnapping and detention of a poker player’s father on August 24, 2024 in Cure (Sarthe). In both cases, the victims were released after the payment of a ransom in cryptocurrency, which was allegedly negotiated by Badiss Bajjou. The Franco-Moroccan is also suspected of orchestrating the kidnapping of David Balland, the co-manager of the Ledger company.