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.