Another Arrest in Crypto Kidnapping and Torture Case

New York Times

28-05-2025

Good morning. It's Wednesday. Today we'll look at the story of an Italian man who told the police he was kidnapped and tortured in a Manhattan townhouse for the password to his Bitcoin wallet.
Three people have been arrested in a cryptocurrency-related torture scheme that sounds like a horror novel: a man tied up inside a luxury townhouse, tormented with electric shocks, carried up five stories and dangled over a ledge. He said his captors had threatened him with death unless he agreed to hand over the password to his Bitcoin wallet, my colleagues Chelsia Rose Marcius and Maia Coleman reported.
For nearly three weeks, authorities say, two men, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, held the victim, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, in a 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan, with the intent to steal his multimillion-dollar crypto fortune. A third person, Beatrice Folchi, was initially arrested and charged for her role in the scheme, but has since been released.
According to an internal police report, Carturan told authorities that his captors had bound his wrists, submerged his feet in water and shocked him with a Taser, and pointed a firearm at his head. Prosecutors said that Woeltz had also threatened Carturan's family, according to a criminal complaint.
After Carturan refused to grant them access to his crypto wallet, the captors suspended him over the ledge and threatened to kill him, the complaint said.
The episode came to light on Friday morning when Carturan escaped the townhouse and sought the help of a traffic agent nearby. When police officers entered the home, they found Polaroid pictures showing Carturan bound and being assaulted. They also found several guns, a ballistic vest and other items used in the torture, a law enforcement official said.
Woeltz, 37, a crypto investor, and Carturan, 28, had ties to a hedge fund in New York, according to the internal police report. But the two men had a falling-out over money, and Carturan flew back to Italy, where he is a citizen. Woeltz persuaded Carturan to return to New York, where Woeltz was renting a townhouse. Upon Carturan's arrival at the NoLIta home on May 6, Woeltz and Folchi, 24, took their visitor's electronic devices and passport, held him captive and tortured him to get the password to his Bitcoin wallet, the report said.
On Saturday, Woeltz and Folchi were arrested, and Woeltz was charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a gun. Folchi was initially also charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, but she was released shortly after and her prosecution was deferred, according to law enforcement. Folchi's connection to Woeltz is not yet clear.
On Tuesday, a third person, Duplessie, 33, turned himself in after negotiating his surrender with the police for several days, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. He is expected to be charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said Tuesday in an interview. Duplessie has ties to Switzerland and Miami, though it is not clear how he knew Woeltz, Folchi or Carturan.
The charges are the latest in a global wave of crypto-related violence targeting executives for the fortunes stored in their digital wallets. France, in particular, has been the site of several attacks on prominent crypto entrepreneurs in recent months. In January, the father of a crypto influencer was found in the trunk of a car, bound and covered in gasoline, after the family was attacked at their home in eastern France, according to French media reports.
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Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [e-mail].
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