NYC crypto trader accused of Italian man's kidnap, torture threatened to kill his family to get Bitcoin password: prosecutors
NEW YORK — The 37-year-old Crypto trader accused of kidnapping a 28-year-old Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment repeatedly shocked his victim with electric wires, held him upside down from the top of a staircase, cut his leg with a saw and threatened to kill the victim's family — all to get the password to the man's Bitcoin account, prosecutors said Saturday.
Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Eric Schumacher ordered John Woeltz held without bail on assault and kidnapping charges as police continued to search for his accomplice. He also issued a restraining order against Woeltz, so if he does get out of jail, he can't go anywhere near his victim.
A second alleged accomplice, a 24-year-old woman, was arrested late Friday but prosecutors declined to bring charges. Detectives on Saturday were still going through the Soho home, bringing out large paper evidence bags.
Prosecutors said the victim arrived in the U.S. on May 6 and visited Woeltz. The two men share interests in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, cops said.
The extortion plot was uncovered after Woeltz's victim managed to escape his swanky Prince and Mulberry Sts. home in SoHo Friday morning and wave down a New York Police Department traffic enforcement agent, who called police.
Responding officers found Woeltz in the $30,000-a-month, eight-bedroom apartment swaddled in a plush white bathrobe.
'The guy comes out in a white bathrobe, barefoot, hands cuffed behind his back, got into a police car,' Ciaran Tully, 64, a vendor who sells photographs on Prince St., told The New York Daily News Friday. 'He didn't look concerned. He didn't look worried or anything like that.'
Trading in his robe for a white T-shirt, black pants and black and white-striped Adidas slides, Woeltz said nothing as Assistant District Attorney Michael Mattson laid out the case against him.
'Upon arriving at the home, (Woeltz and his accomplice) took all of the victim's electronics and his passport, rendering the victim unable to call for help,' Mattson said.
The two bound their victim's wrists and over the next three weeks subjected him to 'beatings including but not limited to the use of electric wires to shock him, using a firearm to hit him on the head, and pointing the firearm at his head on several occasions,' Mattson explained. '(They) used a saw to cut his leg, urinated on the victim, forced him to smoke crack cocaine by holding him down and forcing it into his mouth.'
The duo also 'tied an airtag around his neck with a chain or wire,' Mattson said. 'They (said they) would kill his family and they would find the victim if he left.'
After apprehending Woeltz, police found disturbing Polaroid photos of him and his accomplice torturing their victim and holding a gun to his head.
Sometime during the victim's capture, Woeltz and his accomplice managed to get printed T-shirts of the victim smoking crack. The shirts were found in the home, along with body armor, night vision goggles, ammunition and ballistic helmets, officials said.
The crypto trader refused to talk to police after he was arrested.
'He lawyered up immediately,' a police source said.
On Friday morning, Woeltz 'carried the victim to the top flight of stairs in the townhouse and hung the victim over the ledge as the defendant threatened to kill the victim if the victim would not provide the defendant with the victim's bitcoin password,' Mattson said.
After being pistol-whipped once again, the victim finally consented, but said he needed a laptop, the prosecutor said.
'When the defendant left the victim to retrieve the victim's laptop, the victim was able to escape down the stairs,' Mattson said. 'The victim was bloodied and had no shoes on.'
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated and released.
When requesting he be held without bail, prosecutors said Woeltz had the means to escape the country.
'(He) has a private jet and a helicopter,' Mattson said.
Woeltz is facing 15 years to life if convicted. His attorney Wayne Gosnell declined to comment to reporters after the brief arraignment proceeding.
Woeltz has been featured as a speaker at several cryptocurrency conferences and has 'nearly a decade of experience with technology startups in Silicon Valley,' according to online profiles.
Woeltz's mother Joan Woeltz said her son was an early believer of cryptocurrency and 'had been mining Bitcoin from the age of 12.'
During his travels in the crypto world, he had been taken in and corrupted by another cryptocurrency trader who systematically isolated him from his family and may have been the mastermind of this scheme, the mother claimed.
'We've been concerned about this person entering his life and kind of controlling it,' she said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News. 'My family and I have been concerned for some time for John's well being and what influence he was under with these people.
'We could never speak to John anymore without them being there,' Joan said, adding that the other trader and his cohorts had been influencing her son since December 2023. 'It was very sudden. Suddenly this person entered John's life, and we were suddenly isolated from John.'
Neighbors said the SoHo townhouse was vacant as of December. No one had any idea someone was being held captive and tortured inside.
'I saw the police,' neighbor Luigi, 37, told the Daily News. 'It was a surprise.'
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Politico
14 hours ago
- Politico
Escalating ICE raids pull California Democrats back into immigration fight
SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration's increasingly aggressive moves on immigration are pulling Democrats back into a border security debate they had tried to ignore. For months, Democrats scarred by the politics of the issue sought to sidestep President Donald Trump's immigration wars — focusing instead on the economy, tariffs or, in the case of deportations, due process concerns. But in the span of a week, that calculation was jolted in California, after a series of high-profile raids and arrests, including of a labor union leader and dozens of other people in Los Angeles, and with President Donald Trump on Saturday announcing the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to the area. In this citadel of Democratic politics, party officials from the governor's mansion to city halls are suddenly tearing into Trump on immigration again, inflaming a debate that worked to Trump's benefit in 2024 — but where Democrats believe they now have a political opening. 'We were wrong on the border,' said Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat from San Diego who chided Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a raid at a popular restaurant in the city. 'But it is not hard to explain to average Americans why what's happening here is unproductive. It's so un-American, and it's so cruel.' Peters and other San Diego leaders — including Democratic Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs and Mike Levin — were quick to condemn the recent raid on an Italian restaurant in the trendy South Park neighborhood, where around 20 masked agents stormed the restaurant and handcuffed workers as a rattled crowd looked on. Four undocumented immigrants were arrested. The lawmakers called the agents' tactics 'needlessly reckless' and said the heavy-handed approach 'terrorized' residents, noting agents used flash-bang grenades to disperse those who gathered outside to protest. But if the enforcement action was aggressive, the response from Democrats represented an escalation in their engagement on immigration, too. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, a Democrat, had previously said little about Trump or his immigration policies in the early months of his second term — similar to other blue-city mayors in California who've sought to avoid drawing the president's ire. But in recent days, Gloria sharply criticized federal officials over the raids. And then came the immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, where union officials said the Service Employees International Union's state president, David Huerta, was injured and arrested. Rep. Derek Tran, a Democrat from Orange County, who last fall flipped a hotly contested GOP seat, said on X that he was 'appalled by this clear violation of first amendment rights,' while Rep. Jimmy Gomez called it part of a 'nationwide pattern of suppression.' Protests erupted in the city, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried immigration enforcement tactics she said 'sow terror in our communities.' 'These are fear-driven, military-style operations that have no place in a democratic society,' said Mark Gonzalez, a Democratic state Assemblymember whose downtown LA district was the epicenter of Friday's raids. The next day, when Trump announced the Guard's deployment, Democrats rushed to take a stand in a fight shifting from deportations to the deployment of the Guard. Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted the measure as 'purposefully inflammatory.' And when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the U.S. military, too, Newsom posted on social media, 'This is deranged behavior.' In a note to his super PAC list, he said, 'These are not people who have some deep conviction about protecting law enforcement. This is a President who failed to call up the National Guard when it was actually needed — on January 6th — and then pardoned the participants as one of his first acts as president. They want a spectacle. They want the violence.' For the party at large, it's a notable swing from the immediate aftermath of Trump's victory in November, when many Democratic leaders in California and elsewhere sought to moderate on the issue — or at least strike a more muted tone than they did during Trump's first term. Polling suggests that voter frustration over Democrats' handling of border security and crime played a strong role in Trump's sweeping return to power, and many elected officials adjusted in response. Newsom was among them. He has avoided using the word 'sanctuary' to defend the state's immigration laws that limit police cooperation with ICE. He also vowed to veto a Democratic-led bill that would have applied such restrictions to state prisons and is now proposing steep cuts to a health care program for undocumented immigrants. Earlier this year, he suggested the legal fight over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in El Salvador — he is now back in U.S. custody and facing federal human trafficking charges — was a 'distraction' intended to take Democrats' focus away from other parts of Trump's agenda (Newsom's office later said his remarks were misconstrued). But in recent days, the governor has criticized federal deportation efforts, including reports that federal authorities threatened the family of a Bakersfield girl with a rare, life-threatening medical condition with deportation, despite the family earlier being granted humanitarian protection. 'The @GOP are sending a 4 year old off to her death without a care in the world. It's sick,' Newsom posted on X. The Trump administration has accused Democrats and the media of distorting the facts of the case, noting the girl wasn't actively being deported. Department of Homeland Security Officials said the family has since been approved to stay in the U.S. while she receives medical care. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email that the left's 'unhinged smears' of immigration-enforcement tactics have led to a surge of assaults on ICE agents. 'President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people to deport illegal aliens,' she said. 'It's disturbing that Democrats would side with illegal aliens over Americans and stoke hatred against American law enforcement.' In a social media post, Trump said, 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!' ICE officials have also defended the agency's actions in the San Diego raids, saying agents wear masks due to escalating death threats and online harassment. The agency said it deployed flash-bang grenades when the crowd outside the restaurant 'became unruly' and posed a potential danger. Regarding the arrest of SEIU's leader, federal authorities said Huerta had blocked an ICE vehicle while agents were serving a warrant. Still, the headline-grabbing incidents and images of residents clashing with ICE agents have provided an opening for Democrats to put the Trump administration on the defensive — over raids, accounts of children being separated from their parents during ICE detentions and migrants being arrested in federal courthouses while attending legal proceedings. Recent polling suggests that after making gains with Latino voters in 2024, Trump's support among Latinos is falling off. 'It's one thing when you're talking about illegal aliens in the abstract,' said Mike Madrid, a veteran political consultant and anti-Trump Republican. 'It moved from the abstract to the real. It's cruelty for cruelty's sake, and that's where you're going to lose support.' Chris Newman, legal director with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said while Democrats were hurt in the 2024 election by the Biden administration's handling of immigration, the politics are shifting as Trump tries to carry out his promise of mass deportations. 'When you see these types of Gestapo-style tactics playing out in real life, the whole country is recoiling to that,' said Newman, who represents the family of Abrego Garcia. He has criticized Democrats, including Newsom, over their response to the Abrego Garcia case, which captured national headlines due to Trump's defiance of multiple federal court orders. In that case, Democrats focused their messaging not on the humanitarian toll of deportations, but due process and the rule of law. Newman said the latest raids show Democrats hesitant to attack Republicans over their immigration policies have misread the moment: 'The wrong lesson (from the 2024 election) is that immigration is inherently a losing issue for Democrats at the top level. The right lesson is that what … the American public wants is a clear, legible immigration policy.' Among the most outspoken California Democrats in recent days has been San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who was pilloried by conservative media outlets over his Instagram post that included a photo labeling ICE agents as 'terrorists' in the restaurant raid. The post drew national attention, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accusing politicians on the left of 'openly encouraging violence against law enforcement to aid and abet the invasion of America.' Elo-Rivera, who's also a member of the progressive Working Families Party, said while the restaurant incident made headlines, it was indicative of more aggressive ICE actions that have rattled his district near the U.S.-Mexico border — tactics he argues are designed to stoke fear. He said while Democrats did a lot of 'hemming and hawing' post-election over the party's stance on immigration, they now have a chance to make a sharp contrast with the GOP by consistently advocating for the dignity and rights of migrants. 'Immigration is not a distraction for Democrats. We just need to have the conversation on our terms,' Elo-Rivera said. 'Unfortunately, there's folks that think they need to see a poll first before they take a position.'

Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Rifles, stun grenades, armored trucks in ICE raids spur tensions
The Trump administration is intensifying efforts to round up migrants. It's also doing so with increasingly aggressive tactics. In scenes from San Diego to Massachusetts, agents outfitted with bullet-resistant vests and often displaying military-style rifles are shown in social media videos and photos being escorted along city streets by armored vehicles. A clip from Rhode Island shows an agent standing in a truck's open hatch, manning a rifle. The operations led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often joined by local law enforcement, have coincided with a dramatic increase in arrests of people for running afoul of immigration laws — with ICE reporting more than 1,600 daily apprehensions. That's more than double the 630 average of recent weeks and a roughly 450% increase over typical numbers during former President Joe Biden's last year in office. The latest figures are still barely half of the administration's goal, but the White House is rapidly moving forward with efforts to remove legal obstacles to deportations while ramping up prison capacity and enforcement capability. In the meantime, it's deploying social-media videos with quick edits and throbbing techno beats, made-for-TV moments to get attention. 'This is not normal,' said David Shirk, a political science professor and expert on U.S.-Mexico border issues at the University of San Diego. 'It is a response to what has been a long-standing problem that is greatly exaggerated and intended to convey a sense of shock and awe.' Critics have long decried the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces, which took off after equipment used in the Iraq war was handed over to state and local forces. In the case of ICE's immigration raids, Shirk and others say the tactics aren't only over the top, they risk further inflaming already tense situations, making it more dangerous for the targets, bystanders and the agents themselves. They say the raids are disproportionate to the threat and seem designed to maximize optics for Trump and his supporters, while demonizing migrants who lack legal status but are otherwise law abiding. ICE officials are unapologetic about the shows of force, saying agents must take maximum precautions to protect themselves from dangerous gang members and other criminals. And if the high-profile raids encourage other migrants without documentation to leave, all the better. In social media posts, ICE routinely urges people to avoid arrest by self deporting. In San Diego last week, an operation targeting workers at the popular Italian restaurant Buona Forchetta included agents dressed in camouflage, helmeted and masked, and some carrying rifles. It drew as many as 250 spontaneous protesters who shouted abuse at the agents. Eventually officials deployed stun grenades to disperse the crowd. The agency declined to specify the exact number of arrests or detail any criminal records of those taken into custody. 'The officers took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security department, said in a statement. 'In large part due to protests like this, our ICE officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults while carrying out arrests.' Operations across Massachusetts over the past month resulted in the arrests of nearly 1,500 people for immigration violations, more than half of whom the government said had criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Heavily armed and masked officers were involved in many of the apprehensions. In raids in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard last month, about 40 people were arrested and moved out of the area on a Coast Guard patrol boat. In February, agents in Phoenix used an armored vehicle equipped with a battering ram when they arrested a 61-year-old man. At the time, the agency described the arrest as part of a routine operation and said the man had been deported several times and had multiple criminal convictions. 'The more police dress up in military gear and arm themselves with military equipment, the more likely they are to see themselves as at war with people, and that is not what we want,' said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project manager for policing at the American Civil Liberties Union. An expanded show of force by policing agencies can 'lead to unnecessary violence that leads to unnecessary harm,' she added. Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, this week defended agents' actions, including wearing masks, saying it was for their protection as the public grows increasingly hostile toward their work. 'I am sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, and their family's lives on the line, because people don't like what immigration enforcement is,' Lyons said during a press conference. He cited incidents of people identifying agents and then harassing them and their family members online, sometimes posting children's photos and other private information. The agency has made tens of thousands of arrests and deported tens of thousands of foreigners since Trump took office. But top administration aren't happy with the pace. In a tense meeting last month with dozens of top ICE officials Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump and an architect of the the administration's hardline policies, said arrests should average a minimum of 3,000 a day. Many of those senior agents and officers left the meeting worried they would lose their jobs if the quota isn't met, according to a person familiar with the private discussion. The growing frequency of operations — and the gear agents are toting — can be unsettling to community members who aren't accustomed to such broad enforcement operations, according to Jerry Robinette, a former ICE agent who led the agency's Homeland Security Investigations office in San Antonio until he retired in 2012. 'They are in areas where people aren't used to seeing them and some folks are taken aback by what they are seeing, taken aback by the show of force,' said Robinette, adding that it's hard to second guess the show of force in San Diego without more details. 'Without knowing what the underlying crime that they were concerned about, its really hard to say this was an overkill.' Robinette and others said raids involving heavily armed and helmeted agents aren't unheard of in HSI operations. He said a more robust presence is often used in cases involving serious criminal organizations, including drug trafficking networks. In Warwick, Rhode Island, last month, a heavily armed contingent of officers was deployed to arrest a Guatemalan man who had evaded arrest during an April traffic stop. In that incident, according to federal court records, the suspect flailed about and wiggled away from arresting officers, leading one to twist her ankle and ultimately fracture her leg. The suspect was charged with assault, resisting and impeding a law enforcement officer after his May arrest. He is being held in federal custody, court records show. In San Diego, there's been no clarity on who was targeted by the ICE raid at the Italian restaurant. The tactics raised alarms from local officials. 'Militarized immigration raids in our neighborhoods erode trust, destabilize families and undermine the constitutional right to due process,' County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer said in a statement posted to X. City Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera posted a photo of the restaurant raid to Instagram and wrote the word 'terrorists' over the image. Others have described ICE agents as a 'gestapo.' Lyons, in an interview with Fox News, said such descriptions of his officers were 'just plain disgusting.' Elo-Rivera said he stands by his comments, and described the show of force as unnecessary and intended to instill fear. 'It would scare anyone who saw them,' Elo-Rivera said. 'Nobody is safer as a result of the Trump administration attempting to enforce immigration laws.' Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.


Bloomberg
a day ago
- Bloomberg
Milei's Crypto Promoting Not Improper, Corruption Office Says
Argentina President Javier Milei didn't act improperly when he promoted a crypto token called Libra in February, according to a decision by a government anti-corruption office. The office, which operates under a government ministry, ruled that when Milei sent the post on X, it was in a personal capacity and without federal resources. He didn't break a federal law governing ethics for public officials, the decision said.