NEW YORK (WPIX) – Authorities have apprehended a second suspect, while a third is still on the run, in connection with the suspected kidnapping and torture of an Italian cryptocurrency millionaire in Manhattan.
Beatrice Folchi was taken into police custody but had yet to be charged as of Saturday, according to authorities.
According to police, the tourist fled from a Manhattan apartment on Friday. The 28-year-old Italian informed investigators that he had been kidnapped and subjected to torture over several weeks.
John Woeltz, a 37-year-old man from Kentucky, was taken into custody on Friday and subsequently charged with assault, kidnapping, and unlawful imprisonment on Saturday. Lawyers stated that Woeltz coerced the victim into transferring Bitcoin by threatening his family and then enticed him to New York with the intent of acquiring the cryptocurrency.
Once there, the Italian man was robbed of his electronics and passport and tortured for three weeks, court documents alleged.
Investigators said the victim was bound to a chair in the apartment where he was shocked with electrical wires, pistol-whipped, cut with a saw, forced to smoke cocaine, and had a gun pointed to his head on multiple occasions, among other forms of physical abuse.
Believing that he was about to be shot, the victim was able to escape Friday after agreeing to give up his password, which was stored on his laptop in another room. When the suspect turned his back, prosecutor Michael Mattson said, the victim ran out of the apartment. The victim was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that Mattson said were consistent with his descriptions of being bound and assaulted.
A search of the Manhattan townhouse turned up a trove of evidence, Mattson said, including cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor and night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed to his head.
An investigation is ongoing; the third accomplice has yet to be identified. Court records detailing the alleged scheme said others were involved in the scheme to empty the victim’s Bitcoin wallet. That includes a person referred to in court records as an “unapprehended male.”
Woeltz was ordered to be held without bail, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed Saturday. He was also ordered to surrender his passport. Prosecutors said he has the means to flee, including a private jet and a helicopter. He is due back in Manhattan criminal court next week.
His lawyer, Wayne Gosnell, said Saturday in an email to the Associated Press that he had no comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
