A cryptocurrency investor was arraigned in Manhattan felony court docket on Saturday morning and charged with kidnapping an Italian man and then beating and torturing him for a number of weeks, allegedly to extract cryptocurrency passwords.
The 37-year-old crypto investor, John Woeltz, was arrested on Friday after allegedly torturing the person in a swanky residence in the upscale Manhattan neighborhood of Soho. The sufferer reportedly escaped the five-story residence on Friday and sought assist from the police, who later arrested Woeltz.
According to the New York Times, the police discovered Polaroid photographs inside the house that documented the weeks-long torture.
Woeltz and two accomplices allegedly detained and tortured the 28-year-old man in the house Woeltz had been renting for roughly $30,000 a month. The alleged sufferer informed the police he arrived in the US on 6 Might, when he was kidnapped by Woeltz.
The Occasions studies that Woeltz and one other man stole the sufferer’s gadgets and passport and demanded he hand over his Bitcoin password so they may steal his cryptocurrency. When the sufferer refused, the weeks-long torture started.
The sufferer informed the police Woeltz and the opposite man beat him, shocked him, hit him with a gun and pointed it at his head, and dangled him from the highest of the five-story residence, threatening to kill him. In addition they minimize his leg with a noticed, he stated, threatened to kill his household and pressured him to smoke crack cocaine, the New York Every day Information reported.
Stories say that Woeltz refused to talk with the police and retained authorized illustration instantly. He was arraigned on Saturday on four felony counts, together with kidnapping with intent to gather ransom, and pleaded not responsible. Choose Eric Schumacher ordered that he be remanded with out bail.
A 24-year-old lady was additionally arrested on Friday, though she was confronted by a reporter whereas strolling freely on a New York avenue on Saturday, and the Guardian was unable to search out any expenses associated to her on the Manhattan court docket’s on-line felony case locator.
Many particulars of the episode remained unclear on Saturday, together with how Woeltz and the person knew one another. Woeltz is scheduled to be again in court docket on Wednesday.
