Two suspicious men in the kidnapping and torture of an Italian cryptocurrency investor of 28 years declared themselves innocent, while the investigation into their case seems to have expanded to the New York Police Department.
New York Police had previously arrested William Dupplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37, for the positions, as well as a third individual, Beatrice Folchi, 24, although his prosecution is being deferred. The victim has not been publicly appointed.
Men are accused of kidnapping the victim and keeping him hostage in a luxury house in the Ritzy Soho de Manhattan neighborhood for more than two weeks. During that time, the New York City Police says that the trio tortured man, forcing him to take drugs, hunging him with a shelf, urinating on him and electrocuting him in an effort to force him to deliver the private keys to his Bitcoin. The alleged perpetrators are accused of making the victim’s t -shirts with a crack pipe in his mouth and taking the victim’s victim with a gun in his head.
The victim escaped last Friday, grabbing her laptop and leaving the house and then looking for help from a traffic officer.
Duplessie entered a supplication without pairs of five different positions, including kidnapping with the intention of collecting a rescue, kidnapping and causing physical injury, criminal possession of a loaded firearm, assault with the intention of causing a physical injury with an illegal weapon and imprisonment, according to the court file.
Woeltz was accused of kidnapping, assault, illegal imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, and also declared herself innocent, according to her court file.
Two New York Police officers, including a detective assigned to the protection detail of Mayor Eric Adams, worked for both Duplessie and Woeltz in their hours out of service and have now been put in modified service, Bloomberg reported Thursday. A family source told Coindesk that it is not believed that the two officers are part of the kidnapping, but did security work for the defendants. They may have taken the victim of an airport to the townhouse, but they have not been tied to torture, said the source.
A New York police spokesman said the matter was “under an internal review.”
A spokesman for the mayor’s office said in a statement that “each employee of the city is expected to continue the law, including our officers, both in and out of service. We are disturbed by these accusations, and as soon as it caught the attention, the officers were put in modified service. The investigation is ongoing.”
Update (May 29, 2025, 22:27 UTC): Add additional details.
