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 residence and alerted a close-by visitors agent, telling them that he had been a prisoner contained in the investor’s pad for 2 weeks, according to reports. The 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 residence on Might sixth, after the vacationer arrived within the metropolis, the New York Put up writes. It wasn’t lengthy afterward that the person was allegedly plunged right into a weeks-long ordeal by which he was subjected to horrifying torture strategies. Some retailers have reported that the sufferer is Woeltz’s former enterprise companion.

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

A lot in regards to the felony 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. Nonetheless, Folchi was apparently seen out on the streets of New York not lengthy afterward, and informed the New York Put up 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 individual is or the place they might be.

Not lengthy after the alleged sufferer arrived on the residence, 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 offer 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 residence of the person being tied up and tortured, the New York Put up has reported. Within the images, the person may very well be seen sure with electrical tape and, in a single picture, had a gun pointed at his head, the Put up writes. Police additionally recovered a gun from the residence. Sources interviewed by the Put up declare to have extra 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 sure with an electrical wire, Tased whereas his toes have been put in water, pistol whipped, compelled to take cocaine and threatened to have his limbs lower off with an electrical chainsaw, the sources mentioned. The nightmare erupted from a dispute over cryptocurrency, by which the suspect allegedly tried to extort hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from the person by unleashing a litany of horrific tortures, in line with sources.

When reached for remark by Gizmodo on Friday, a NYPD public info merely offered the next assertion: “On Friday Might 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 visitors agent and alerted him that he was a sufferer of an assault.” Gizmodo additionally reached out to Woeltz’s lawyer for remark.