Crypto investor ‘kidnapped Italian tourist to steal bitcoin’

Just after 9.30am on Friday, a traumatised Italian tourist, bloodied and barefoot, fled into the street from a SoHo townhouse in Manhattan and rushed to flag down a police officer who was directing traffic.

For the past three weeks, he told police, he had been bound and tortured at gunpoint at the luxury house, subjected to beatings, electric shocks and mock executions. His alleged kidnappers, led by a cryptocurrency investor, had threatened to kill him if he did not hand over his bitcoin password to access his digital funds.

The crypto investor in question, John Woeltz — known as the “crypto king of Kentucky” — was arrested by officers who swooped on the Manhattan property within minutes of the victim’s escape. Woeltz, 37, was dressed in a white bathrobe as he was led away and arraigned in court on Saturday, charged with kidnapping with intent to collect ransom, assault, unlawful imprisonment and other counts.

John Woeltz and another man allegedly seized the victim’s laptop, phone and passport

The alleged victim has been named by La Repubblica newspaper as Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan from Rivoli, near Turin, where he lived with his parents.

Hetold police that he had arrived in New York from Turin on May 6 and gone to the townhouse, which Woeltz was renting for about $30,000 a month. When he arrived, Woeltz and a second man seized his laptop, phone and passport, demanding that he hand over the password to his cryptocurrency account.

When the victim refused, the two men tied him up and subjected him to weeks of torture. The victim said he was beaten, drugged, shocked with electric wires and had a gun pointed at his head. His leg was cut with a saw and he was forced to smoke crack cocaine.

Woeltz and his accomplice threatened to kill his family, according to the criminal complaint. At one point, they suspended him over the stairwell of the five-storey home and threatened to hurl him to the ground if he did not give up the bitcoin password.

The house in which the victim was allegedly held

The victim escaped only after finally agreeing to hand over the password, which was stored on his laptop in another room. When Woeltz’s back was turned, the man fled from the building and alerted the traffic officer.

• Crypto millionaires targeted in series of violent abductions

A search of the property uncovered a trove of evidence including cocaine, a gun and ammunition, a saw, chicken wire, body armour and night vision goggles. Police discovered Polaroid photos of the victim bound with a gun pointed at his head. T-shirts showing the victim smoking a crack pipe were also found, apparently printed by Woeltz and his accomplice.

The victim was taken to hospital and treated for injuries that prosecutors said were consistent with his account of being bound and assaulted. Two butlers who worked at the house were also interviewed by detectives.

Woeltz, who is originally from Kentucky, was ordered by a judge to surrender his passport on Saturday. Prosecutors argued that the crypto investor had the means to flee the US, because he owned a private jet and a helicopter. He is due back in court this week.

A second person, the 24-year-old former actress Beatrice Folchi, was also arrested in connection with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment charges. After Woeltz’s arraignment, however, the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced that it had “declined to prosecute” Folchi pending further investigation.

Beatrice Folchi, who was also arrested

BEATRICE FOLCHI/BACKSTAGE

A third suspect, named only as an “unapprehended male” in court documents, is still being hunted for his role in the plot.

Local residents described a chaotic scene as police descended on the property on Friday. “We saw police running this way and then there was just a lot of screaming,” Molli Sramowicz, a witness, told CBS News. “Police with their guns out, then the Swat team came in, then a firetruck.”

Several details of the episode remain murky, including the relationship between Woeltz and the victim, and what brought them to New York. Woeltz has spoken at several crypto conferences and his family said that he was an early investor in bitcoin.

The incident follows a string of violent attacks that have seen crypto investors and their families abducted or assaulted for ransom as criminals target their digital wallets. At least five crypto-related kidnappings have taken place in France over recent months and dozens more incidents have been reported around the world.

The Australian crypto billionaire Tim Heath narrowly escaped an abduction attempt in Estonia last year, fighting off kidnappers who posed as painters.