A French tax agent who used company software to track down crypto specialists, prison guards and French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, before passing details onto criminals, has had her appeal rejected.
Ghalia C. was arrested in June last year and charged with criminal conspiracy and aiding a violent attack against a prison officer.
The 32-year-old admitted to passing on information she’d obtained to three men who later attacked the prison officer and his wife in their home.
The men were reportedly paid €800 ($932) to settle a dispute that arose from the discovery of mobile phones in a prison cell. Ghalia, while working at the Bobigny tax office, was able to procure the prison supervisors’ new home address thanks to the in-house tax software.
In addition, Ghalia reportedly used her position to look up the details of various crypto investors, investment group CEO Bolloré, health inspectors, prison guards, and a judge.
Read more: French government gives crypto entrepreneurs priority police line
In return, she had cash and Western Union transfers deposited into her bank accounts.
Local media reports that Ghalia attended one of France’s appellate courts on Monday and asked to be released from prison. She argued that, while she did pass on the information to the men, she didn’t know what they would do.
Her lawyer claims that a lot of assumptions are being made about her case, and that she cannot reveal the identity of any instigator, as she doesn’t know it. Despite this, her appeal was rejected.
The attorney general claims she refused to give up the passcode to her phone and the name of her sponsor. “This woman used her position in a completely abnormal way to serve a seasoned criminal. Her place is in prison,” they said.
French Women held captive over partner’s crypto
France has garnered something of a reputation for the number of physical crypto-related thefts, known as “wrench attacks,” in the country.
On Monday evening, a woman was reportedly tied up by three masked individuals looking for a USB stick containing information that would give them access to her partner’s cryptocurrency.
She was able to free herself and call the police after her captors had fled. It’s unclear how much crypto the attackers were trying to steal.
Other high-profile incidents have included high-profile kidnappings that involved the cutting off of fingers, and public attacks in the middle of the day.
