A cryptocurrency investor from Kentucky was arrested in Manhattan on Friday for allegedly holding an Italian businessman captive for over two weeks in a luxury SoHo apartment.
The New York City Police Department has charged John Woeltz, 37, with two counts of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a weapon.
A bloodied and bruised 28-year-old businessman, who has not been publicly identified, allegedly fled Woeltz’s Prince Street apartment hours before he thought he would be killed. The man approached a nearby traffic agent, who then called the cops.
Woeltz was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday.
He is being held without bail and has been forced to surrender his passport, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
The businessman claimed he arrived in New York from Italy on May 6 and went to Woeltz’s apartment. Woeltz stole the businessman’s electronic devices and passport and demanded his Bitcoin password.
When he refused, Woeltz and another man tortured him for more than two weeks, shocking him with wires, holding a gun to his head, and suspending him from the five-story building’s ledge, according to a criminal complaint.
According to police, he was bound with electrical cords, tasered while his feet were in water, pistol-whipped, coerced into taking cocaine, and threatened with having his limbs severed with an electric saw.
The abuse continued until Friday morning, when the victim escaped.
When police entered Woeltz’s apartment, they allegedly discovered Polaroids showing the man being tied up with electrical wire, tortured, and bound to a chair with a gun pointed at his head.
Police believe the Polaroids were used to extort money from the victim or his family in Italy.
Officers also discovered guns and several torture devices in the apartment, which reportedly rents for $30,000 to $40,000 per month.
Police discovered no other victims in the apartment.
Beatrice Folchi, 24, of Manhattan, was arrested on Saturday for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment charges related to the incident. Folchi’s alleged role and relationship with Woeltz are unclear.
Police are still looking for another male suspect.
The allegations come after a series of attacks on crypto investors and executives, aimed at gaining access to high-value accounts protected by advanced encryption.
The news of the alleged crimes shocked the neighbors.
“This is definitely the strangest thing I’ve seen in my time here,” Ciaran Tully, who works across the street from Woeltz’s apartment building, told The New York Post.
Tully claimed to see a barefoot Woeltz detained in a white bathrobe.
“Normally, this is a pretty quiet block,” he informed me.
