What to know about the SoHo crypto kidnapping case and the suspects John Woeltz, William Duplessie
On May 23, a shoeless and distressed man rushed up to a NYPD traffic cop in lower Manhattan with a sickening allegation. The 28-year-old man was an Italian crypto millionaire named Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan. He claimed that he had just escaped from a posh Prince Street townhouse where he was allegedly held prisoner, brutalized, and tortured for his cryptocurrency password. Two suspects, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, have been arrested in the disturbing case.
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Crypto kidnapping victim's dizzying view during alleged weeks-long torture ordeal
This is likely the dizzying view forced on crypto kidnapping victim Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan when he was allegedly dangled over a five-story staircase while being tortured for his Bitcoin password. Real estate photos of the eight-bedroom $21 million-dollar townhouse on Prince Street in SoHo where authorities said Carturan, 28, was abused and held captive for 17 days show the spiral, multi-level plunge he is believed to have faced during the harrowing ordeal. The native of Italy, who is worth $30 million, suffered serious injuries in the horrific episode, during which Manhattan prosecutors alleged he was tied to a chair with electrical wire, tased while standing in water, cut on his legs and arm with a chainsaw, urinated on and forced to take drugs. His accused tormentors — crypto entrepreneur John Woeltz and Swiss business man William Duplessie — also allegedly destroyed Carturan's passport. Carturan was rescued after he fled the townhouse barefoot on May 23 and flagged down a traffic cop for help. The former captive has already contacted the Italian consulate on the Upper East Side in order to get a new passport, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported. 'Only on Saturday did the first contacts take place between the family (who said little or nothing keeping the conditions and the account of what happened confidential) and the Italian Foreign Ministry,' according to the outlet. His family owns a herbalist shop, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Carturan was living in Rivoli, a town in the city of Turin in northern Italy, with his family before venturing to the Big Apple on May 6 to meet Woeltz, according to authorities and sources. He had studied psychology before dropping out of school to trade crypto, the Italian press reported. He was apparently hoping to retrieve Bitcoin allegedly stolen from him by Woeltz and Duplessie, who then turned the tables, took him captive and threatened to kill him and his family unless he gave them the password to his bitcoin wallet, prosecutors said. Woeltz, 37, of Kentucky, is believed to be worth $100 million. Polaroids that were found at the property showed Carturan — who reportedly has a net worth of $30 million — with a gun pointed at his head and being forced to smoke crack cocaine, authorities said. The pair are due in court June 11.
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