2nd suspect surrenders in SoHo crypto torture case; man allegedly held for weeks

Yahoo

5 days ago

The Brief
A second man has turned himself in after a victim was allegedly tortured inside an apartment in order to get him to give up his Bitcoin password.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch made the announcement on Good Day New York.
"So far, it's those two that we're looking at. There may be others," Tisch said.
NEW YORK CITY - A second man has turned himself in – NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday morning on Good Day New York – after a victim from Italy was allegedly tortured inside an upscale SoHo apartment in order to get him to give up his Bitcoin password.
The man, identified as William Duplessie, 33, of Miami, FL, is charged with:
Assault in the 2nd degree.
Kidnapping in the 1st degree.
Unlawful imprisonment in the 1st degree.
Criminal possession of a firearm.
"So far, it's those two that we're looking at. There may be others," Tisch said.
What we know
Cryptocurrency investor John Woeltz, 37, was also charged with kidnapping the man and keeping him locked up for weeks in the apartment, where authorities say he was beaten, shocked and led to believe that his family was in danger if he didn't give up his Bitcoin password.
Woeltz was arrested Friday night after the victim escaped from the eight-bedroom town house and flagged down a traffic officer on the street for help, according to prosecutors.
He was arraigned Saturday on charges of kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, court records show.
The backstory
The 28-year-old victim arrived in New York City from Italy in early May, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The victim said he was bound by the wrists and tortured for weeks inside the apartment. His captors, according to prosecutors, drugged him, used electric wires to shock him, hit him in the head with a firearm and, at one point, carried him to the top of a flight of stairs, where they dangled him over a ledge and threatened to kill him if he didn't share his Bitcoin password.
Believing that he was about to be shot, the victim was able to escape on Friday after agreeing to give up his password, which was stored on his laptop in another room. When the suspect turned his back, prosecutor Michael Mattson said, the victim ran out of the apartment.
The victim was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that Mattson said were consistent with his descriptions of being bound and assaulted.
A search of the town house turned up a trove of evidence, Mattson said, including cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor and night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed at his head.
What we don't know
It's not clear how or if the two knew each other, but the district attorney's office said in an email that prosecutor Michael Mattson told a judge Saturday that the victim, whose name has not been released, was abducted on May 6.