On Tuesday, Kim Kardashian arrived at the Palais de Justice to testify against her 2016 robbers, covered in maharaja-worthy diamonds. We know that her spectacular necklace contained 80 stones that totaled 52.17 carats, because its designer, Samer Halimeh New York, put out a press release before the cameras even stopped flashing.
This works in America, where wealth is so conflated with virtue that Trump is serving his second term, but French culture relishes turning that value system on its head. Or chopping it off entirely.
Before Kardashian started testifying, a more recent high-stakes drama was unfolding just a few miles to the southeast in the 11th Arrondissement. The daughter, son-in-law, and grandson of Pierre Noizat, the founder of the crypto exchange Paymium, narrowly avoided being snatched off the street and hauled into a van in broad daylight.
The attempted kidnapping by three masked men fell apart as quickly as it started. The targets screamed and fought back, throwing the gun of one of the kidnappers out of reach as the assailants rained down blows. A witness, who jumped in to defend them, hurled a fire extinguisher at the van as the perpetrators fled the scene, leaving the male victim bleeding badly from the head. All of it was captured on a bystander’s phone and quickly set social media ablaze.
Crypto fortunes have a ring of vulgarity to them, untethered as they are to any perceivable value—kind of like social-media influencers. In France, aristocrats drive Twingos. Most rich people are happy to see their apartments featured in French Architectural Digest, but only if their name is nowhere near the story. You will never learn how much anyone paid for anything unless you actually share a bank account with them. Sexualize kids and you’re an artist, but celebrate wealth and you’re a social outcast.
Smash-and-grab robberies have been a recurring nightmare during Paris Fashion Week for many years, but for criminals, they’re a gamble: well-known stones (like Kardashian’s $4 million diamond) are easy to trace. Crypto transfer, on the other hand, is relatively neat, clean, and non-physical—and much more complicated to track.
Tuesday’s attempted kidnapping is the third crypto-targeted scheme to unfold since January. That was when David Balland, another early crypto-wallet entrepreneur, as a co-founder of Ledger, and his wife were taken from their country home. The kidnappers, who wanted $11 million in Bitcoin from Balland’s associates, cut off one of Balland’s fingers for proof of life. The Ballands were held hostage separately for several days before they were rescued by gendarmes.
Just 12 days before Tuesday’s attempted kidnapping, the father of another crypto exec was snatched from his apartment, in the 14th Arrondissement, for a ransom of between $5.5 and $8 million. He, too, was released, having lost a finger for his trouble. His alleged assailant, as well as the Ballands’, now awaits trial.
Meanwhile, the criminals behind Tuesday’s attempt remain at large. But never let a crisis go to waste, the executives at Paymium must have thought. In a statement released on Wednesday, they pleaded for something like crypto compassion.
“The media and politicians play an important role in their treatment of information about cryptocurrencies,” it read. “The frequently disseminated misconceptions, ranging from supposed wealth to fantasies of criminality, unfortunately contribute to fueling disinformation and creating a harmful climate.” More succinctly: don’t hate us because we got rich off vapor.
They followed this up with a request for privacy, which isn’t quite as innocent as it sounds. Even as Macron has tried to position France as a haven for the crypto industry, it has been rocked by the latest strike in a decades-long war of attrition with undeclared wealth.
As of February 5, privacy coins and their protocols have been declared illegal. That means no anonymous holdings or transactions, which the law argues protect money-launderers, drug dealers, and other malfeasants. The European Union is currently debating its own enhanced restrictions. The party’s winding down, bros.
Unless you work in private security. Yacin Terab, head of the bodyguard agency Securyter, told the southern French newspaper La Dépêche that the profession’s ranks grew fourfold around the time of the 2024 Paris Olympics. It’s a prestigious career, he said, citing the relatively high hourly wage of $22. That works out to a whole $36,600 a year.
The day after her court appearance, Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, celebrated with a little shopping. Kardashian wore a marabou-trimmed topcoat, but, arguably, her most precious accessories were her bodyguards. The greeter at the private-car company she used in 2016 was part of the conspiracy that robbed her, so we’re going to assume this week’s retinue was imported from back home. Still, she might want to think about bonuses. It may be the smartest money she’ll ever spend.
Alexandra Marshall is a Writer at Large at AIR MAIL and a contributor to W, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and Travel + Leisure. She chronicles her recent relocation to Le Perche in the newsletter An American Who Fled Paris
