Latest news with #TheNewYorkDailyNews
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
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.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY lawmakers may weaken, stall tougher educational requirements for yeshivas
NEW YORK — New York lawmakers are brokering a deal that would delay and weaken educational requirements for religious schools — a major setback for yeshiva reform advocates who believe all students should receive some secular instruction, The New York Daily News has learned. The plan is to include the changes in the next state budget, which is in its final stages of completion and more than a month late, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. On Thursday, the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the last-minute effort a 'travesty' for students during an interview with The New York Times. 'It's gutting this whole mechanism that exists for compliance and caring if kids are able to get a basic education,' said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of the group Young Advocates for Fair Education. The New York State Education Department passed regulations in 2022 related to government oversight of private schools. The schools were given multiple ways to show how they were complying with a century-old state law, which requires private schools provide secular instruction at least 'substantially equivalent' to that offered at a public school. The vast majority of private schools, including most yeshivas, are following the law. But the years-long fight came to a head this year when the agency moved to revoke funding from six ultra-Orthodox schools in Brooklyn, seemingly not cooperating with regulators — the initial cohort of which was first reported by the Daily News. The agency's Board of Regents is expected to take up the topic at its monthly meeting on Monday. With the final details of any possible deal still under wraps, some proposals have included extending the deadline for schools to comply with the regulations by as long as eight years, sources said. Others add potentially less rigorous assessments for schools to demonstrate compliance, or allow those with older grades to skip a test entirely if they meet requirements in younger grades, though one source had not heard those specifics. The most sweeping changes, which have been called for by the Legislature's Republican leadership, would involve repealing the regulations in the name of parental rights in education and respecting the autonomy of religious schools. 'I have a general rule after 23 years in Albany,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat and chair of the finance committee. 'If someone comes along at the last second and tries to stuff something into budget negotiations — where there's been nothing in writing, no opportunity for public review or expert review, and you're being told, 'we've got to do this to get the budget done' — whatever that proposal is, it smells to high heaven, and you should run the other way.' Sources said there appeared to be more enthusiasm for changes in the Assembly than the Senate. The governor's office did not return a request for comment on Friday afternoon. There is speculation Gov. Kathy Hochul could have her own reelection prospects in mind as gubernatorial candidates start to vie for a powerful Hasidic voting bloc. 'It's three-dimensional chess — with the yeshivas as just a pawn,' said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY lawmakers may weaken, stall tougher educational requirements for yeshivas
NEW YORK — New York lawmakers are brokering a deal that would delay and weaken educational requirements for religious schools — a major setback for yeshiva reform advocates who believe all students should receive some secular instruction, The New York Daily News has learned. The plan is to include the changes in the next state budget, which is in its final stages of completion and more than a month late, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. On Thursday, the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the last-minute effort a 'travesty' for students during an interview with The New York Times. 'It's gutting this whole mechanism that exists for compliance and caring if kids are able to get a basic education,' said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of the group Young Advocates for Fair Education. The New York State Education Department passed regulations in 2022 related to government oversight of private schools. The schools were given multiple ways to show how they were complying with a century-old state law, which requires private schools provide secular instruction at least 'substantially equivalent' to that offered at a public school. The vast majority of private schools, including most yeshivas, are following the law. But the years-long fight came to a head this year when the agency moved to revoke funding from six ultra-Orthodox schools in Brooklyn, seemingly not cooperating with regulators — the initial cohort of which was first reported by the Daily News. The agency's Board of Regents is expected to take up the topic at its monthly meeting on Monday. With the final details of any possible deal still under wraps, some proposals have included extending the deadline for schools to comply with the regulations by as long as eight years, sources said. Others add potentially less rigorous assessments for schools to demonstrate compliance, or allow those with older grades to skip a test entirely if they meet requirements in younger grades, though one source had not heard those specifics. The most sweeping changes, which have been called for by the Legislature's Republican leadership, would involve repealing the regulations in the name of parental rights in education and respecting the autonomy of religious schools. 'I have a general rule after 23 years in Albany,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat and chair of the finance committee. 'If someone comes along at the last second and tries to stuff something into budget negotiations — where there's been nothing in writing, no opportunity for public review or expert review, and you're being told, 'we've got to do this to get the budget done' — whatever that proposal is, it smells to high heaven, and you should run the other way.' Sources said there appeared to be more enthusiasm for changes in the Assembly than the Senate. The governor's office did not return a request for comment on Friday afternoon. There is speculation Gov. Kathy Hochul could have her own reelection prospects in mind as gubernatorial candidates start to vie for a powerful Hasidic voting bloc. 'It's three-dimensional chess — with the yeshivas as just a pawn,' said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center.
American Military News
22-04-2025
- American Military News
Videos: 'Emotionally disturbed person' at Trump Tower arrested
New York Police Department officials reportedly arrested an 'emotionally disturbed person' at Trump Tower in New York City on Monday. According to The Associated Press, law enforcement officials confirmed that a 30-year-old individual was arrested inside Trump Tower after officials responded to a report of a disorderly individual on an 'elevated surface' at Trump Tower. The outlet noted that New York Police Department officials responded to the incident at roughly 4:30 p.m. on Monday. Police officials told The Associated Press that the New York Police Department's emergency service unit was able to arrest the individual without any further incident at Trump Tower after law enforcement officials arrived at the building. While law enforcement officials have not announced what charges the 30-year-old individual could face following Monday's incident, The Associated Press reported that officials confirmed the incident was under investigation. READ MORE: Trump assassination plot tied to 'Satanic cult': Report Sources told The New York Daily News that the individual was 'running around on the 5th floor' and 'acting up trying to get to the roof.' Additionally, a New York Police Department anti-terrorism officer told the outlet, 'It was nothing political, he was emotionally disturbed. He was clearly off his meds.' A video shared by journalist Oliya Scootercaster shows a heavy presence of law enforcement officials at Trump Tower on Monday as police officials evacuated people from Trump Tower's atrium. The Associated Press reported that some of the officers were seen wearing safety harnesses and helmets that are typically used by emergency responders who are trained to rescue individuals from high locations. In a caption to the footage from Monday's incident, Scootercaster tweeted, 'Hostage Negotiation Team was present at Trump Tower after unknown person tried getting to the roof of the building. Suspect, described as emotionally disturbed person, was stopped on the 5th floor.' Scootercaster also shared two other videos on X, formerly Twitter, from Monday's incident at Trump Tower. In the videos, a large crowd can be seen gathered outside Trump Tower as a significant number of New York Police Department officials entered the building and secured the property.
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Photographer Tanya Braganti On Capturing Broadway's Theaters
Schoenfeld Theatre For photographer Tanya Braganti, the streets of New York City have always provided an endless array of subjects. From her days at The New York Daily News, where she captured everything from fashion shows to heart surgeries, to her freelance work for architects, universities, and non-profits, Braganti has developed a keen eye for the city's ever-unfolding stories. In 2012, she took on a particularly monumental task: photographing all of Broadway's historic theaters for Spotlight on Broadway, a project spearheaded by Commissioner Kathryn Oliver under Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Media & Entertainment. (The videos from the project can be viewed on YouTube.) Neil Simon Theatre 'I was fortunate to work with TVGals Media's Bobbie Birleffi and Beverly Kopf, the Emmy-winning directors and producers of Spotlight on Broadway, when I helped do photo stills in Nashville for their documentary Wish Me Away, the coming-out story of Chely Wright in 2010,' she explains. Braganti's familiarity with Broadway theaters was, admittedly, limited before the project. 'I had seen some plays when I first came to New York City—Les Parents Terribles with Kathleen Turner, Proof—and my mom's Oklahoma! and Carousel albums were on repeat in my childhood,' says Braganti. 'But I wasn't too familiar with the theaters themselves.' That quickly changed. Given the non-stop activity in Broadway's venues, scheduling was a challenge. 'There was so much going on 24/7, so we usually had about an hour to work on each,' she says. 'With the help of the producers, we honed in on each theater's unique aspects as efficiently as possible.' Some theaters left a particularly strong impression. The Cort Theatre (now the James Earl Jones Theatre) stood out for its transportive, 18th-century European aesthetic. 'It has a marble bust of Marie Antoinette and 'Minuet Dance in the Garden of Versailles' over the proscenium,' Braganti notes. 'Katharine Hepburn made her Broadway debut there in 1928.' Another unforgettable space was the Walter Kerr Theatre, whose intimate Renaissance atmosphere and cultural significance made an impact. 'Tony Kushner called it 'one of the most perfectly designed theaters and a national treasure.' During the early '90s run of Angels in America, it became a gathering place to mourn the decimation of a community during the AIDS crisis,' Braganti reflects. 'That kind of history is palpable.' She was also captivated by hidden historical details, such as the ice conveyor systems found in some theater basements. 'They used to blow fans over ice blocks to cool the first-class section,' she says, referring to a relic of a bygone era that still lingers beyond the modern Broadway experience. Lyceum Theatre Reflecting on the project, Braganti is struck by how Broadway serves as both a stage for theatrical history and a living time capsule. 'Time kind of folds over itself in these theaters. Whether renovated or not, these floorboards and fixtures breathe the past—from the moment Barbra Streisand saw her first show, to the theater where Eugene O'Neill directed his first play, to the stage where George Clooney will make his debut.' For Braganti, photographing Broadway was more than just a job—it was a journey through New York's artistic heartbeat. 'Entering these theaters, you experience the past and present as one moment. That's the magic of Broadway.'
