Italian businessman tortured for weeks with chainsaw and Taser in luxury New York apartment by crypto investor, police say
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A cryptocurrency investor from Kentucky was arrested in Manhattan on Friday after allegedly holding an Italian businessman captive for more than two weeks in a luxury SoHo apartment.
John Woeltz, 37, has been charged with two counts of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the New York City Police Department.
A bloody and bruised 28-year-old businessman, who has not been publicly identified, allegedly escaped Woeltz's Prince Street apartment hours before he believed he would be killed. The man approached a nearby traffic agent, who then called police. Rents in SoHo are high. That on Woeltz's apartment is thought to be between $30,000 and $40,000 a month (Getty Images)
Woeltz was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Saturday.
He is being held without bail and was forced to surrender his passport, according to the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The businessman claimed he arrived in New York from Italy on May 6 and went to Woeltz's apartment, where Woeltz stole his electronic devices and his passport then demanded the businessman's Bitcoin password.
When he refused, Woeltz and another man held him captive for more than two weeks of torture, including shocking him with wires, holding a gun to his head, and suspending him over the ledge of the five-story building, according to a criminal complaint.
He was bound with electrical cords, tasered while his feet were in water, pistol-whipped, forced to take cocaine, and threatened with having his limbs cut off with an electric chainsaw, according to police. Read More TRON and BitTorrent are exploring zkEVM integration
The abuse continued until the victim escaped on Friday morning.
When police entered Woeltz's apartment, they reportedly found Polaroids depicting the man being tied up with electrical wire, tortured, and bound to a chair with a gun pointed to his head.
The Polaroids were likely used to extort money from either the victim or his family in Italy, police said.
Officers also found guns and several torture devices in the apartment, reportedly rented for $30,000 to $40,000 a month.
Police found no other victims in the apartment.
Officials also arrested Beatrice Folchi, 24, of Manhattan, on Saturday, on kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment charges stemming from the incident. Folchi's alleged role or relationship to Woeltz is unclear.
Police are still searching for another male suspect.
The allegations follow a string of reported attacks targeting crypto investors and executives for access to accounts worth millions of dollars locked behind sophisticated encryption.
Neighbors were shocked by news of the alleged crimes.
'This is definitely the strangest thing I've seen in my time here,' Ciaran Tully, who works across the street from Woeltz's apartment building, told The New York Post.
Tully claimed he saw a barefoot Woeltz detained in a white bathrobe.
'Normally, this is a pretty quiet block,' he said.
'I just can't believe stuff like this would happen in 2025 in New York of all places,' Midtown resident Kareem Hakemy told CBS News. 'This is our borough, our neighborhood. … We have to be careful.'
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