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A cryptocurrency investor was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Saturday morning and charged with kidnapping an Italian man and then beating and torturing him for several weeks, allegedly to extract cryptocurrency passwords.
The 37-year-old crypto investor, John Woeltz, was arrested on Friday after allegedly torturing the man in a swanky home in the upscale Manhattan neighborhood of Soho. The victim reportedly escaped the five-story home on Friday and sought help from the police, who later arrested Woeltz.
According to the New York Times, the police found Polaroid photos inside the home that documented the weeks-long torture.
Woeltz and two accomplices allegedly detained and tortured the 28-year-old man in the home Woeltz had been renting for roughly $30,000 a month. The alleged victim told the police he arrived in the US on 6 May, when he was kidnapped by Woeltz.
The Times reports that Woeltz and another man stole the victim’s devices and passport and demanded he give up his Bitcoin password so they could steal his cryptocurrency. When the victim refused, the weeks-long torture began.
The victim told the police Woeltz and the other man beat him, shocked him, hit him with a gun and pointed it at his head, and dangled him from the top of the five-story home, threatening to kill him. They also cut his leg with a saw, he said, threatened to kill his family and forced him to smoke crack cocaine, the New York Daily News reported.
Reports say that Woeltz refused to speak with the police and retained legal representation immediately. He was arraigned on Saturday on four felony counts, including kidnapping with intent to collect ransom, and pleaded not guilty. Judge Eric Schumacher ordered that he be remanded without bail.
A 24-year-old woman was also arrested on Friday, although she was confronted by a reporter while walking freely on a New York street on Saturday, and the Guardian was unable to find any charges related to her on the Manhattan court’s online criminal case locator.
Many details of the episode remained unclear on Saturday, including how Woeltz and the man knew each other. Woeltz is scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday.
