An American cryptocurrency investor faces criminal charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing a man in Manhattan for weeks in an attempt to steal his bitcoins
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John Woeltz, 37, was prosecuted on Saturday by multiple positions, including kidnapping, assault and illegal possession of weapons, after he kept captive a 28 -year -old Italian man in a luxury house, authorities say.
The Italian man traveled to New York earlier this month and was attracted to a five -story rental in the Nolita neighborhood, where prosecutors say that Woeltz and an unidentified accomplice began to abuse him to obtain their cryptographic wallet credentials.
The townhouse, rented for at least $ 30,000 per month, became the site of a terrible experience of a week. Prosecutors say that the victim was beaten, shocked with electrical cables and threatened to gun.
At one point, he was hung on a ladder railing and told him that they would kill him if he did not give up. He was also warned that his family would be harmed, reports the New York Times.
The victim escaped Friday morning, marking a traffic officer after running out of the house. Police arrested Woeltz in the place and discovered Polaroid photos that showed the abuse, along with weapons and other torture teams.
A second person, Beatrice Folchi, was also arrested, while a third suspect remains in general.
This attack is part of a worrying pattern: the cryptocurrency industry has seen dozens of physical assaults only this year. In a recent case, Pierre Noizat’s daughter and grandson, CEO of Crypto Platform Paymium, was attacked in an attempt to kidnapped video and published online.
That attempt failed, but before in the same city, the father of a cryptographic millionaire was kidnapped and a finger was cut before being rescued.
In another incident, David Balland, co -founder of the Ledger hardware wallet manufacturer, and his wife were kidnapped from his house. They were later rescued by the authorities, and a paid rescue was seized.
