New York crypto investor accused of kidnapping Italian tourist
The BBC has contacted the New York Police Department, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and Mr Woeltz's attorney for comment. The 28-year-old victim, who has not been named, was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition, police have said. Officers found several Polaroid photos of the victim being tied up and tortured, as well as firearms, in the luxury townhome, according to reports. The victim told police he came to New York from Italy on 6 May, and that upon arriving at the suspect's house, Mr Woeltz took his passport and allegedly held him captive until he escaped on Friday morning.According to a criminal complaint obtained by ABC News, the victim told police that Mr Woeltz and another person beat him and hanged him off a ledge when he refused to provide his bitcoin password. Mr Woeltz is a crypto investor from Kentucky and has been renting the SoHo home for between $30,000 (£22,000) and $40,000 per month, according to CBS News.
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The DoJ has made blanket objections citing ongoing investigations, but through Foia litigation the courts can test those objections by potentially reviewing the information 'in camera',' Kuvin said. 'This means that an independent judge may be appointed to review the information to determine whether the DoJ's objections are accurate or just a cover.' Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School's Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, cautioned that calls for disclosures – and even government requests to release some files – might not be a panacea for access to extensive documents. 'This case is already complicated, and there were already too many cooks in the very crowded kitchen, and it's getting more crowded as more public interest grows in the grand jury materials as well as the now-settled defamation case,' Gutterman said. But stonewalling could also continue. With the public records requests, it's possible that US federal authorities could still successfully cite the investigation exemption and keep documents out of pubic view. 'Using Foia for FBI and law enforcement materials related to this case, might be a creative newsgathering tactic, but the law enforcement exemption the government is citing might be legitimate because some of the materials are grand jury materials and some other materials might include private or unsubstantiated allegations,' Gutterman said. 'The reporter in me thinks there is an important public interest in revealing these documents, but the law might end up keeping most material secret. Even with the widespread and growing public interest, it might be too big an ask to unseal a lot of this material. 'Practically speaking, the DoJ might also be very selective in which materials it would want to release as well because of the political element involved here, too.'
