Second suspect in New York bitcoin kidnapping surrenders to police
NEW YORK: A second suspect in the alleged kidnapping and torture of an Italian bitcoin investor in New York surrendered on Tuesday, authorities said.
Police on Friday arrested John Woeltz, 37, of Kentucky, on suspicion of brazenly kidnapping and torturing an Italian cryptocurrency entrepreneur for weeks in a luxury Manhattan townhouse in order to extort his bitcoin password.
New York City Police Chief Jessica Tisch said on Fox 5 that the second suspect in the case, William Duplessie, was also taken into custody on Tuesday morning.
"We do have someone that we were looking for, Mr Duplessie, in custody. As of this morning, 7.45, he turned himself in at our 13th precinct," Tisch said.
"We know he is going to be charged with Mr Woeltz with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate in Soho," she said.
Duplessie, who according to US media is 33 and comes from Miami, Florida, surrendered to police clad in black trousers and a white shirt, photos from the scene showed.
The name of the alleged victim has not been published, but US media reports identified him as Italian bitcoin entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan.
According to reports, Carturan arrived in New York from Italy on 6 May and went to Woeltz's home.
There, Woeltz, described by the New York Post as "Kentucky's crypto boss", and Duplessie confiscated the victim's electronic devices and passport, and demanded access to his bitcoin accounts, according to police.
After the victim refused, the two men tortured him for two weeks, tying his wrists, hitting him with a rifle, pointing a gun at his face, threatening to throw him off the roof of the five-storey building and promising to kill his family members, media reports said.
Several details of the story remain murky, including exactly why the victim had agreed to come to the townhouse in an upscale SoHo neighbourhood, and whether he revealed anything of use to the kidnappers.
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