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San Francisco Chronicle
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Mount Rushmore of Directors: Ranking America's Most Iconic Filmmakers
Mike and Nancy Pfeffer, Albany Dear Mike and Nancy Pfeffer: By American, I'm going to assume you mean people who made the bulk of their movies in the United States. And I'm going to go by the criteria set by director Peter Weir, who said that, to be among the greatest directors, a filmmaker has to have made three masterpieces. By that standard, among living directors, I'd go with Martin Scorsese ('Raging Bull,' ' The Wolf of Wall Street,' ' The Irishman '); Woody Allen ('Annie Hall,' 'Hannah and Her Sisters,' 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'); Quentin Tarantino (' Inglourious Basterds,' ' Django Unchained,' ' Once Upon a Time in Hollywood') and Richard Linklater ('Before Trilogy,' ' Boyhood '). All four have met that standard. So have Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg, so this is a crowded Mount Rushmore. Among dead directors, I'd go with Ernst Lubitsch ('Ninotchka, 'Design for Living,' 'The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'); Monta Bell ('Lady of the Night,' 'After Midnight,' 'Downstairs'); Alfred Hitchcock (' Vertigo,' North by Northwest,' 'Psycho') and Charles Chaplin ('The Gold Rush,' 'City Lights,' 'Modern Times'). Dennis Briskin, Palo Alto Dear Dennis: That's true, and I repeat that I didn't even meet him. I was just relieved that I didn't have to. I was at a press conference for 'Get Shorty,' and after seeing the way he talked to the press, I was glad that I wasn't assigned to interview him one on one. (Instead, I had to interview John Travolta, who might actually be the nicest guy in the world.) In any case, Hackman made enough of an impression that, 30 years later, I wasn't surprised to hear that he left his kids out of his will. I mean, leaving out one kid might be an oversight. Leaving out two is pushing it. But leaving out all three begins to seem like it might be his fault. Hey Mick: You've never met Gene Hackman, yet you took the opportunity to make him out to be a 'prickly and difficult person.' Shame on you. I had a brief encounter with Mr. Hackman while on vacation in Southern California years ago. My wife and I approached him, and I told him how much we admired his work. He was very nice, asked where we were from, why we were down in SoCal, and if we were having a good time. He actually told us to check out a local eatery off the main drag. Seemed like a really nice, down to earth, regular guy. Lloyd Cavalieri, Berkeley Hey Lloyd: You may be right. Then again, it's not much of a strain to impersonate a human being when approached by two nice people saying, 'We both think you're great.' Even Charles Manson probably could have held it together for that long. And when he mentioned the local eatery off the main drag, did you consider the possibility that he was trying to tempt you with food just to get you to stop talking to him? And if he was really such a regular guy, why did he recommend an 'eatery' and not a plain old restaurant? Sorry, but there are other angles to consider here.
Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Crypto suspects face kidnapping charges
NEW YORK: The latest crime thriller gripping New York is the alleged kidnapping of a wealthy Italian man whose captors attempted to torture the crypto millionaire into giving up his bitcoin password. It began amid the backdrop of wild parties, immortalized in pop culture through films like 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' in a posh Manhattan nightclub where the nouveau riche and flashy Wall Street bros congregate. It ended on the morning of May 23, when a man ran to a police officer near Mulberry and Prince streets in the Soho district of Manhattan. The barefoot man claimed he had just escaped a luxurious apartment where he was held captive for 17 days after entering the United States. Police arrived at the scene and arrested John Woeltz, 37, dubbed 'the crypto king of Kentucky' by tabloids, who is facing charges of kidnapping, criminal possession of weapons, assault and unlawful imprisonment. Woeltz's 24-year-old assistant was also detained but does not face the same charges. A second man, William Duplessie, 33, who is the founder of the startup Pangea Blockchain International, turned himself in on Tuesday and was charged similarly to Woeltz. Duplessie, who originally hails from Miami, appeared in court Friday wearing a jail uniform. Philosophy degree According to details reported by local media, the presumed victim is Italian cryptocurrency entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, who visited John Woeltz's rented home—which goes for $30,000 a month—upon arriving from Italy on May 6. Once there, Woeltz and Duplessie confiscated his electronic devices and passport, and demanded the access code to his bitcoin assets, police said. After his refusal, the two men allegedly tortured Carturan, striking him with a rifle, pointing the weapon in his face and taking him to the building's fifth floor, where they threatened to throw him out the window, local media reported. 'He's a 37-year-old man with no prior criminal record. He's a college graduate with a degree in philosophy. He has been very successful in the technology world,' Woeltz's lawyer Wayne Ervin Gosnell said during a court hearing Thursday. The defense requested Woeltz's conditional release in the state of New York in exchange for a $2 million bond. Gosnell also noted that it has been said Woeltz 'owns a private jet, he owns a helicopter. That is not true.' Lavish lifestyle Though Woeltz has neither a jet nor a helicopter, he leads an exceedingly lavish lifestyle, according to the New York Post and TMZ, which published racy images of the suspects partying at The Box, a New York nightclub. The Post also mentioned frequent parties at the Soho apartment that is the scene of the alleged kidnapping. In recent months, cases of kidnappings or attempted abductions in the cryptocurrency world have multiplied globally as bitcoin, the most capitalized cryptocurrency, has grown to historical peaks. For Adam Healy, CEO of Station70, a firm specializing in crypto protection, these crimes are not new—he worked on a case years ago when an American traveling to Egypt was kidnapped for his crypto assets. 'I think that the frequency and the ruthlessness is increasing,' Healy said. In the last six to eight months, he has seen 'a significant uptick in those that are known to hold crypto or executives at crypto firms, things along those lines, getting targeted by a wide range of different criminals.' Healy attributed part of the uptick in crime to the rising price of bitcoin. 'It's a bigger target,' he said, and they are boosted by the ease with which massive payloads can be transferred with no oversight—as long as the crypto user can log in. 'Historically, if you wanted to kidnap something that was high net worth and they had, I don't know, ten million dollars in their JP Morgan account, it was kind of hard to get to,' Healy said. 'You couldn't just go to the bank and get a million dollars out.' — AFP
Malaysia Sun
a day ago
- Business
- Malaysia Sun
Goldman Sachs banker gets two years for international bribery scheme
BROOKLYN (CN) - Tim Leissner, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, received a sentence of two years in prison after pleading guilty to federal bribery charges - and helping U.S. prosecutors secure a conviction - tied to a multibillion-dollar scheme to rob the fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, otherwise known as 1MDB. Leissner admitted to his role in bribing officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi so that 1MDB would execute lucrative bond deals with the global investment bank. He was ordered to forfeit $43.7 million under his guilty plea. Goldman Sachs itself also faced criminal charges. The bank's Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty and the bank paid $5 billion in penalties, according to court documents. Leissner was the government's star witness in the trial and conviction of Ng Chong Hwa, who goes by Roger, the only banker to face trial over the scheme. Ng received a 10-year prison sentence while the plan's purported mastermind and his co-defendant, "playboy" Malaysian businessman Jho Low, remains at large. Malaysia created the 1MDB fund in 2009 to stimulate economic growth, but the project was quickly infiltrated by a vast embezzlement scheme in which proceeds were laundered around the world. The money flowed through art auctions, luxury New York City real estate and Hollywood production companies, one of which produced the Oscar-nominated Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." Described at trial by another Goldman employee as an aggressive businessman, Leissner admitted he didn't tell the firm about the bribes paid as part of the three bond transactions with 1MDB. He also said he hid the fact that at the center of the bribery scheme was Low, an exceedingly well-connected Malaysian businessman who had already gained tabloid fame for extravagant parties in Las Vegas and New York City. Low, whose full name is Low Taek Jho, paid celebrities, models and musicians to attend the multimillion-dollar blowouts, a marketing executive testified. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian, P. Diddy, Fergie, Pharell, Ke$ha and Paris Hilton all appeared on guest lists. Leissner was previously married to Kimora Lee Simmons, a model and TV personality with whom he has a son. At Ng's trial, Leissner said the two men were "best friends" who worked closely to obtain and carry out the illicit business: Ng as former head of Goldman's business in Malaysia and Leissner in charge of all of Southeast Asia. Ng meanwhile argued he was made the fall guy, one of about two dozen co-conspirators implicated by the government, many of them high-up government officials or senior to him at Goldman, like Leissner. His trial attorney urged the jury not to take Ng's former boss-turned-cooperator at his word. Leissner, after all, admitted to lying to the FBI in early interviews; said he was married to two women simultaneously - two separate times - and accordingly forged divorce documents; and testified he created a fake email address in his ex-wife's name and used it to communicate with his then-girlfriend for more than a year. Leissner's family supported him in the lead-up to his sentencing, writing letters asking Chief U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie for leniency. Goldman, however, skewered its former employee in its own filing: "Mr. Leissner's serial lies, fraud, and deception at Goldman Sachs continued from the day he first brought the transactions through the firm to the day he left the firm." Source: Courthouse News Service
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Crypto duo faces kidnapping charges in alleged bitcoin theft attempt
William Duplessie, charged with kidnapping and torture for trying to steal a man's Bitcoin password, appears with his defense attorney Sanford Talkin, left, in Manhattan Criminal court, Friday, May 30, 2025. (AP) NEW YORK: The latest crime thriller gripping New York is the alleged kidnapping of a wealthy Italian man whose captors attempted to torture the crypto millionaire into giving up his bitcoin password. It began amid the backdrop of wild parties, immortalized in pop culture through films like "The Wolf of Wall Street," in a posh Manhattan nightclub where the nouveau riche and flashy Wall Street bros congregate. It ended on the morning of May 23, when a man ran to a police officer near Mulberry and Prince streets in the Soho district of Manhattan. The barefoot man claimed he had just escaped a luxurious apartment where he was held captive for 17 days after entering the United States. Police arrived at the scene and arrested John Woeltz, 37, dubbed "the crypto king of Kentucky" by tabloids, who is facing charges of kidnapping, criminal possession of weapons, assault and unlawful imprisonment. Woeltz's 24-year-old assistant was also detained but does not face the same charges. A second man, William Duplessie, 33, who is the founder of the startup Pangea Blockchain International, turned himself in on Tuesday and was charged similarly to Woeltz. Duplessie, who originally hails from Miami, appeared in court Friday wearing a jail uniform. - Philosophy degree - According to details reported by local media, the presumed victim is Italian cryptocurrency entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, who visited John Woeltz's rented home -- which goes for $30,000 a month -- upon arriving from Italy on May 6. Once there, Woeltz and Duplessie confiscated his electronic devices and passport, and demanded the access code to his bitcoin assets, police said. After his refusal, the two men allegedly tortured Carturan, striking him with a rifle, pointing the weapon in his face and taking him to the building's fifth floor, where they threatened to throw him out the window, local media reported. "He's a 37-year-old man with no prior criminal record. He's a college graduate with a degree in philosophy. He has been very successful in the technology world," Woeltz's lawyer Wayne Ervin Gosnell said during a court hearing Thursday. The defense requested Woeltz's conditional release in the state of New York in exchange for a $2 million bond. Gosnell also noted that it has been said Woeltz "owns a private jet, he owns a helicopter. That is not true." - Lavish lifestyle - Though Woeltz has neither a jet nor a helicopter, he leads an exceedingly lavish lifestyle, according to the New York Post and TMZ, which published racy images of the suspects partying at The Box, a New York nightclub. The Post also mentioned frequent parties at the Soho apartment that is the scene of the alleged kidnapping. In recent months, cases of kidnappings or attempted abductions in the cryptocurrency world have multiplied globally as bitcoin, the most capitalized cryptocurrency, has grown to historical peaks. For Adam Healy, CEO of Station70, a firm specializing in crypto protection, these crimes are not new -- he worked on a case years ago when an American traveling to Egypt was kidnapped for his crypto assets. "I think that the frequency and the ruthlessness is increasing," Healy said. In the last six to eight months, he has seen "a significant uptick in those that are known to hold crypto or executives at crypto firms, things along those lines, getting targeted by a wide range of different criminals." Healy attributed part of the uptick in crime to the rising price of bitcoin. "It's a bigger target," he said, and they are boosted by the ease with which massive payloads can be transferred with no oversight -- as long as the crypto user can log in. "Historically, if you wanted to kidnap something that was high net worth and they had, I don't know, ten million dollars in their JP Morgan account, it was kind of hard to get to," Healy said. "You couldn't just go to the bank and get a million dollars out."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto duo faces kidnapping charges in alleged bitcoin theft attempt
The latest crime thriller gripping New York is the alleged kidnapping of a wealthy Italian man whose captors attempted to torture the crypto millionaire into giving up his bitcoin password. It began amid the backdrop of wild parties, immortalized in pop culture through films like "The Wolf of Wall Street," in a posh Manhattan nightclub where the nouveau riche and flashy Wall Street bros congregate. It ended on the morning of May 23, when a man ran to a police officer near Mulberry and Prince streets in the Soho district of Manhattan. The barefoot man claimed he had just escaped a luxurious apartment where he was held captive for 17 days after entering the United States. Police arrived at the scene and arrested John Woeltz, 37, dubbed "the crypto king of Kentucky" by tabloids, who is facing charges of kidnapping, criminal possession of weapons, assault and unlawful imprisonment. Woeltz's 24-year-old assistant was also detained but does not face the same charges. A second man, William Duplessie, 33, who is the founder of the startup Pangea Blockchain International, turned himself in on Tuesday and was charged similarly to Woeltz. Duplessie, who originally hails from Miami, appeared in court Friday wearing a jail uniform. - Philosophy degree - According to details reported by local media, the presumed victim is Italian cryptocurrency entrepreneur Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, who visited John Woeltz's rented home -- which goes for $30,000 a month -- upon arriving from Italy on May 6. Once there, Woeltz and Duplessie confiscated his electronic devices and passport, and demanded the access code to his bitcoin assets, police said. After his refusal, the two men allegedly tortured Carturan, striking him with a rifle, pointing the weapon in his face and taking him to the building's fifth floor, where they threatened to throw him out the window, local media reported. "He's a 37-year-old man with no prior criminal record. He's a college graduate with a degree in philosophy. He has been very successful in the technology world," Woeltz's lawyer Wayne Ervin Gosnell said during a court hearing Thursday. The defense requested Woeltz's conditional release in the state of New York in exchange for a $2 million bond. Gosnell also noted that it has been said Woeltz "owns a private jet, he owns a helicopter. That is not true." - Lavish lifestyle - Though Woeltz has neither a jet nor a helicopter, he leads an exceedingly lavish lifestyle, according to the New York Post and TMZ, which published racy images of the suspects partying at The Box, a New York nightclub. The Post also mentioned frequent parties at the Soho apartment that is the scene of the alleged kidnapping. In recent months, cases of kidnappings or attempted abductions in the cryptocurrency world have multiplied globally as bitcoin, the most capitalized cryptocurrency, has grown to historical peaks. For Adam Healy, CEO of Station70, a firm specializing in crypto protection, these crimes are not new -- he worked on a case years ago when an American traveling to Egypt was kidnapped for his crypto assets. "I think that the frequency and the ruthlessness is increasing," Healy said. In the last six to eight months, he has seen "a significant uptick in those that are known to hold crypto or executives at crypto firms, things along those lines, getting targeted by a wide range of different criminals." Healy attributed part of the uptick in crime to the rising price of bitcoin. "It's a bigger target," he said, and they are boosted by the ease with which massive payloads can be transferred with no oversight -- as long as the crypto user can log in. "Historically, if you wanted to kidnap something that was high net worth and they had, I don't know, ten million dollars in their JP Morgan account, it was kind of hard to get to," Healy said. "You couldn't just go to the bank and get a million dollars out." gl/bdx/sla/jgc
