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New York Times
6 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Another Suspect Is Charged in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case
A third person accused of kidnapping a man and torturing him for nearly three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police in New York City on Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said. The police identified the man, who has connections to Switzerland and Miami, as William Duplessie, 33. He spent days negotiating his surrender with the Police Department after the arrest on Friday of two other suspects, according to two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter. Mr. Duplessie was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on Tuesday night and charged with kidnapping, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. He was also charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was held without bail. One of the people arrested on Friday, John Woeltz, 37, a cryptocurrency investor, faces kidnapping, assault and firearms charges. The other, Beatrice Folchi, 24, who was initially charged by the police with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, was quickly released and her prosecution was deferred, one of the officials said. Shortly before 11:30 a.m., Mr. Duplessie, in handcuffs and flanked by two detectives, was walked out of a precinct house on East 21st Street in Manhattan. Wearing a white polo shirt and black pants, Mr. Duplessie did not respond to questions as he was placed in a waiting police cruiser. The episode burst into public view on Friday morning when the victim, an Italian man named Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, escaped from a lavish, 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan, where he was being held captive, and flagged down a traffic agent. Mr. Carturan and Mr. Woeltz had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York, according to an internal police report relayed by a third law enforcement official. But Mr. Carturan and Mr. Woeltz fell out over money and Mr. Carturan flew to Italy, according to the report. Soon after, Mr. Woeltz persuaded him to return to New York. Mr. Carturan arrived at the townhouse, at 38 Prince Street, on May 6, where he was captured and held by Mr. Woeltz and Ms. Folchi, the report said. They wanted the password to a Bitcoin wallet worth millions, the report said. Mr. Carturan was bound with electrical cords and whipped with a gun, according to the report. The attackers also submerged his feet in water and used a Taser to jolt him with electricity. At points they also urinated on him, forced him to smoke crack cocaine and threatened to kill his family, prosecutors said. Inside the townhouse, which was recently listed for rent at $75,000 a month, investigators discovered photographs of Mr. Carturan being tortured, as well as several guns, a ballistic vest, chicken wire, broken furniture and traces of blood — much of it on the third floor of the home, according to the report and prosecutors. Mr. Carturan said that as he rebuffed his captors' demands, the assaults escalated, and he was carried to the top of the five-story home and suspended over the ledge. After his escape, Mr. Carturan told the police the harrowing story, according to the report. Surveillance video aired by NBC 4 shows Mr. Carturan rushing for help in the moments after he fled the townhouse on Friday. In the video, he lopes barefoot down the sidewalk in apparent distress and approaches a traffic officer who is roaming nearby. Mr. Carturan can be seen wearing black athletic shorts and a black polo shirt and clutching a small black bag as he bounds on his heels toward the officer. At the arraignment, Mr. Duplessie's lawyer, Sanford Talkin, asked the judge to allow his client to be released to stay in Florida with his father, James Duplessie, who sat in the courtroom on Tuesday evening. 'The facts here are hotly disputed; his involvement is hotly disputed,' Mr. Talkin said. The judge, Julieta Lozano, denied the request. Mr. Talkin and Mr. Duplessie's father declined to comment after the arraignment. Mr. Woeltz's lawyer, Wayne Ervin Gosnell Jr., and Mr. Woeltz's mother also declined to comment on the case. Efforts to reach a lawyer for Ms. Folchi were unsuccessful. The case comes amid a rash of jarring attacks around the globe in which high-ranking crypto executives and their relatives have been kidnapped or assaulted for ransom. The 'wrench attacks,' so named because of the brutish techniques involved, have become a growing concern in the world of digital currency, as more investors store sensitive information on physical devices, instead of digitally, in an effort to avoid hackers. The trend has become especially troubling in France, where several prominent crypto entrepreneurs have been targeted in the past few 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. A few weeks later, the founder of a French cryptocurrency company was abducted from his home and had one of his fingers cut off by his captors. Mr. Duplessie is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Pangea Blockchain Fund, an investment firm based in Lugano, Switzerland, that he launched with his father and another relative, Stephen Duplessie, in 2019, according to archived pages of the company's website. The fund raised $19 million to invest in tech companies 'committed to building impactful blockchain solutions,' according to its LinkedIn page. Pangea is 'currently liquidating its positions,' according to the site, which is now a single page. William Duplessie roamed from state to state in the past decade, holding addresses in California, Louisiana, Kentucky and Florida, according to public records. His arrest on Tuesday is not his first brush with the court system. Complaints against Mr. Duplessie in Connecticut and in Miami hint at a life of luxury underpinned by recklessness and debt. In one complaint from 2023, a car leasing company sued Mr. Duplessie for failing to make the $3,690-a-month payments on a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan. In another complaint from that year, he was sued for failing to pay rent on a furnished home in Miami and then leaving it in a state of disrepair. This December, Mr. Duplessie was also sued for 'violently' rear-ending another car while driving a 2016 Porsche Cayman in Miami. He has also received eight traffic violations in Miami since December 2021, according to public records. The link between Mr. Duplessie and Mr. Woeltz is unclear, but public records show that Mr. Duplessis spent time in Smithland, Ky., about 20 miles from Mr. Woeltz's hometown, Paducah. Mr. Woeltz in 2020 told The Paducah Sun, a local newspaper, that after he graduated from the University of Kentucky, he had moved west and begun to invest in Silicon Valley startups. His tech career appeared to take off quickly. In 2018, a John Woeltz was part of a winning team at the ETHGlobal San Francisco hackathon, according to a post by the organization. He and his teammates built a robot that could cast absentee ballots for college students. In 2020, Mr. Woeltz gave $10,000 to Sprocket, a nonprofit, that sought to bring tech companies to the Paducah area, according to the interview with The Sun. At the time, Mr. Woeltz said he was the managing director of Silicon River Capital, an investment fund focused on blockchain technology. 'When I grew up in Paducah, there just wasn't a clear path for me locally in tech,' Mr. Woeltz said in the interview. 'After graduating from U.K., I packed my bags and headed for Silicon Valley, because that's what you had to do then to succeed in the industry.' In recent years, Kentucky has become a player in the cryptocurrency mining industry, and Mr. Woeltz was tapped to join a working group under its state office of technology. The group was set up by Kentucky lawmakers to use blockchain technology to protect natural gas pipelines, telecommunications and other infrastructure, according to its 2024 annual report. But Mr. Woeltz's interactions with the group in recent years were limited. In interviews with The New York Times, two participants said that Mr. Woeltz served only as an advisory member.
New York Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Second Suspect Is Arrested in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case
A second person accused of kidnapping and torturing a man for three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police on Tuesday morning, said Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch. The man's surrender followed the arrest on Friday of two others in the case. John Woeltz, a cryptocurrency investor, was charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a gun. Beatrice Folchi was also arrested. The police identified the man who turned himself in at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday as William Duplessie. 'We know he is going to be charged, with Mr. Woeltz, with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate,' Commissioner Tisch said in an interview on Fox 5 Tuesday morning. The episode burst into public view on Friday morning when the victim, an Italian man who had arrived in New York City on May 6, escaped from a lavish, 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan and flagged down a traffic agent. The victim, whose name has not been publicly released by the authorities, described a harrowing story of abuse, torture and threats on his life, in which his captors held a gun to his head and demanded the password to his Bitcoin wallet, according to an internal police report. As he rebuffed their demands, the assaults escalated, he said, and he was carried to the top of the five-story home and suspended over the ledge. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Yahoo
Swiss crypto bigwig partying in Hamptons for Memorial Day before he surrenders over horrific SoHo torture of Bitcoin billionaire: sources
A Swiss crypto trader wanted for questioning in the horrific SoHo torture of an Italian Bitcoin millionaire is enjoying a posh Memorial Day weekend in the Hamptons before turning himself in, sources told The Post. The Euro exec was named as a person of interest in the sensational case after the arrest of Kentucky crypto king John Woeltz on Friday for allegedly kidnapping and torturing wealthy trader Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan at a ritzy townhouse on Prince Street in Manhattan. Woeltz, who sources said owns a private jet and chopper and is worth at least $100 million, was arraigned on kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and weapons possession charges and ordered held without bail in Manhattan Criminal Court. His assistant, 24-year-old Beatrice Folchi, was also arrested but released after the Manhattan DA's Office declined to prosecute her pending further investigation, officials said. Cops launched a manhunt for a third person tied to the case — the Swiss trader — who sources have told The Post reached out to police and said he would surrender this week. According to sources, Carturan, who is reportedly worth $30 million, was lured to the SoHo pad and held captive while his tormentors tortured him for his Bitcoin password. The Italian national was tied to a chair and tasered while his feet were in a bucket of water, was urinated on, pistol-whipped and had his arms and legs cut with a chainsaw, law-enforcement sources said. He was allegedly also dangled from the top of a staircase during the vicious ordeal. Police said Carturan was finally able to escape Friday when his captors were distracted. He was being treated at Bellevue Hospital, sources said.
Gizmodo
26-05-2025
- Gizmodo
Crypto Investor Arrested After Being Accused of Kidnapping and Torturing Italian Tourist
A crypto investor from Kentucky was arrested in New York City this week after being accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian tourist. John Woeltz, 37, was taken into custody after his alleged victim, a 28-year-old man, broke loose from Woeltz's ritzy Nolita apartment and alerted a nearby traffic agent, telling them that he had been a prisoner inside the investor's pad for two weeks, according to reports. The traffic officer swiftly alerted police, who arrested Woeltz, news outlets have reported. The alleged victim, who has since been hospitalized and whom authorities have declined to name, initially met up with Woeltz at his expensive apartment on May 6th, after the tourist arrived in the city, the New York Post writes. It wasn't long afterward that the man was allegedly plunged into a weeks-long ordeal in which he was subjected to horrifying torture techniques. Some outlets have reported that the victim is Woeltz's former business partner. Woeltz was arraigned on Saturday morning and charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, CNN writes. He is being held without bail. Much about the criminal case remains unclear. The New York Times reports that a 24-year-old woman named Beatrice Folchi was also arrested alongside Woeltz and was similarly charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. However, Folchi was apparently seen out on the streets of New York not long afterward, and told the New York Post that she had not been arrested. 'Everything is going to be told but with a lawyer — I can't make any comments right now,' Folchi told the outlet. Another man, identified by police as an 'unapprehended male,' is also thought to have participated in the torture activities, the newspaper writes. It is unknown who this person is or where they may be. Not long after the alleged victim arrived at the apartment, Woeltz is accused of stealing the man's passport and cellphone. Woeltz and the other unidentified male then allegedly interrogated the victim, asking for his crypto wallet password. When the man refused to give it to them, police say they proceeded to imprison and torture him through a variety of horrifying and diabolical methods, according to multiple outlets. Police found Polaroids inside the apartment of the man being tied up and tortured, the New York Post has reported. In the photos, the man could be seen bound with electrical tape and, in one image, had a gun pointed at his head, the Post writes. Police also recovered a gun from the apartment. Sources interviewed by the Post claim to have additional information about the alleged ordeal that the tourist went through. Those hair-raising allegations include: Since being taken captive, the tourist had been bound with an electric cord, Tased while his feet were put in water, pistol whipped, forced to take cocaine and threatened to have his limbs cut off with an electric chainsaw, the sources said. The nightmare erupted from a dispute over cryptocurrency, in which the suspect allegedly tried to extort millions of dollars from the man by unleashing a litany of horrific tortures, according to sources. When reached for comment by Gizmodo on Friday, a NYPD public information merely provided the following statement: 'On Friday May 23rd, 2025, at approximately 937 hours in the vicinity of Mulberry Street and Prince Street, a 28-year-old victim approached an on-duty traffic agent and alerted him that he was a victim of an assault.' Gizmodo also reached out to Woeltz's attorney for comment.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Glamorous Italian assistant tied to $100m crypto bros' 'torture chamber' at $75,000-a-month NYC mansion - where tourist 'was held hostage for his Bitcoin account'
The glamorous Italian assistant of the Kentucky-based crypto investor accused of kidnapping and torturing a tourist has reportedly been arrested and charged as investigators extend their probe. Beatrice Folchi, 24, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful imprisonment after a man from Turin told police he had been held hostage for nearly three weeks in an effort to extort his crypto passwords. Folchi, an aspiring actress who lives in Connecticut, was seen being led out of the $75,000-per-month brownstone Soho home on Saturday, where the sickening ordeal is alleged to have taken place. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute pending further investigation, a spokesperson said, and Ms Folchi insisted she was not implicated in the crimes. 'I'm not arrested,' she told the New York Post outside her apartment in Chelsea, New York City, declining to comment further. 'Everything is going to be told but with a lawyer - I can't make any comments right now,' she said. The development comes after a 28-year-old Italian tourist fled the 'house of horrors' on Friday, flagging down a nearby cop after being locked away for three weeks. Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan said he had been lured to the house by his former business associate, John Woeltz, who allegedly chained him up, electrocuted him, pistol-whipped him and threatened to cut him up with a chainsaw if he did not yield passwords to his crypto accounts. He said that he seized the opportunity to escape after being told that Friday would be his 'death day'. Police say the men took Polaroid photographs of themselves torturing him - one showing him bound to a chair with a gun pressed to his head. The photos, authorities believe, were likely intended to extort money from either the alleged victim or his family back in Italy. Police raided the Soho address after Mr Carturan escaped and claimed he had been held captive since May 6. The tourist had only recently arrived in Manhattan from Italy after allegedly being lured by the false promises of an business opportunity. John Woeltz, known as the 'the crypto king of Kentucky' with an estimated worth of $100mn, was dragged out of the building in a white bath robe on Friday morning. Police have arrested a group of so-called 'crypto bros' in connection with the case, accused of binding the alleged victim with electrical cords and using other forms of shock torture to get him to share his passwords. Mr Woeltz allegedly snatched the alleged victim's electronic devices as he arrived and demanded he give up his crypto password to an account holding Bitcoin. The gang were alleged to have pistol-whipped Mr Carturan and threatened to sever off his limbs with an electric chainsaw before he did concede his passwords. At one point, they were said to have 'carried the victim to the top flight of stairs of the apartment in the compound and hung the victim over the ledge, after threatening to kill the victim if [he] did not provide the defendant with the victim's Bitcoin password'. Police said the men took Polaroid photographs of themselves torturing him - one showing him bound to a chair with a gun pressed to his head. The photos, authorities believe, were likely intended to extort money from either the alleged victim or his family back in Italy. The men also reportedly forced him into taking drugs - including crack cocaine - and imposed mental torment upon him, repeatedly insisting he would never escape. Prosecutors also allege that he was urinated on during the ordeal, and that his captors slashed his leg. Sources told the New York Post that he was fitted with an Apple AirTag to track his movements, but made a daring escape on Friday when their backs were turned. He fled the Soho townhouse just after 9.30am on Friday and found safety in a traffic agent nearby. Police then raided the house and found broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles and a bullet proof vest strewn across the apartment. Authorities also discovered a firearm, prompting them to request a search warrant for a more thorough investigation of the property. Mr Woeltz, described by police as the renting occupant of the appartment, was found in an upstairs bathroom. He was arrested and is currently being held with charges pending. Folchi, an Italian-born marketing manager and small-time actress, was reportedly working as Woeltz's assistant at the time of the alleged crimes. Her professional bio claimed she had experience working with high-end brands like Puma, Manchester City, Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Meanwhile, her IMDB and Backstage pages detail minor roles in short films, including a 2021 indie titled Butterfly Wings. Her social media is now mostly locked down. Friends from the Connecticut suburbs where her family once lived told reporters her parents had recently rented out their home and returned to Italy.
