Crypto Investor Arrested After Being Accused of Kidnapping and Torturing Italian Vacationer

A crypto investor from Kentucky was arrested in New York Metropolis this week after being accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian vacationer. John Woeltz, 37, was taken into custody after his alleged sufferer, a 28-year-old man, broke unfastened from Woeltz’s ritzy Nolita condo and alerted a close-by site visitors agent, telling them that he had been a prisoner contained in the investor’s pad for 2 weeks, according to reports. The site visitors officer swiftly alerted police, who arrested Woeltz, information retailers have reported.

The alleged sufferer, who has since been hospitalized and whom authorities have declined to call, initially met up with Woeltz at his costly condo on Could sixth, after the vacationer arrived within the metropolis, the New York Submit writes. It wasn’t lengthy afterward that the person was allegedly plunged right into a weeks-long ordeal through which he was subjected to horrifying torture methods. Some retailers have reported that the sufferer is Woeltz’s former enterprise associate.

Woeltz was arraigned on Saturday morning and charged with assault, kidnapping, illegal imprisonment and prison possession of a firearm, CNN writes. He’s being held with out bail.

A lot in regards to the prison case stays unclear. The New York Occasions reports that a 24-year-old lady named Beatrice Folchi was additionally arrested alongside Woeltz and was equally charged with kidnapping and illegal imprisonment. Nevertheless, Folchi was apparently seen out on the streets of New York not lengthy afterward, and informed the New York Submit that she had not been arrested. “All the pieces goes to be informed however with a lawyer — I can’t make any feedback proper now,” Folchi informed the outlet. One other man, recognized by police as an “unapprehended male,” can be thought to have participated within the torture actions, the newspaper writes. It’s unknown who this particular person is or the place they could be.

Not lengthy after the alleged sufferer arrived on the condo, Woeltz is accused of stealing the person’s passport and cellphone. Woeltz and the opposite unidentified male then allegedly interrogated the sufferer, asking for his crypto pockets password. When the person refused to present it to them, police say they proceeded to imprison and torture him by way of quite a lot of horrifying and diabolical strategies, according to multiple outlets.

Police discovered Polaroids contained in the condo of the person being tied up and tortured, the New York Submit has reported. Within the photographs, the person may very well be seen certain with electrical tape and, in a single picture, had a gun pointed at his head, the Submit writes. Police additionally recovered a gun from the condo. Sources interviewed by the Submit declare to have further details about the alleged ordeal that the vacationer went by way of. These hair-raising allegations embrace:

Since being taken captive, the vacationer had been certain with an electrical wire, Tased whereas his toes had been put in water, pistol whipped, compelled to take cocaine and threatened to have his limbs minimize off with an electrical chainsaw, the sources stated. The nightmare erupted from a dispute over cryptocurrency, through which the suspect allegedly tried to extort tens of millions of {dollars} from the person by unleashing a litany of horrific tortures, in keeping with sources.

When reached for remark by Gizmodo on Friday, a NYPD public info merely offered the next assertion: “On Friday Could twenty third, 2025, at roughly 937 hours within the neighborhood of Mulberry Avenue and Prince Avenue, a 28-year-old sufferer approached an on-duty site visitors agent and alerted him that he was a sufferer of an assault.” Gizmodo additionally reached out to Woeltz’s legal professional for remark.