Crypto Investor Accused of Kidnapping for Bitcoin Password

Hey, so there's this wild story coming out of NYC. Apparently, a grand jury said this guy, John Woeltz, who's 37 and into crypto, kidnapped his business partner. Can you believe it? This happened in a fancy part of Manhattan called Soho, and they kept him for like, three weeks!

Prosecutors are saying this Woeltz guy and another dude, William Duplessie, did some seriously messed-up stuff. They supposedly shocked the partner with electric wires and even held him over a staircase. Why? To get his Bitcoin password! They wanted to steal his crypto, which is just wild.

Records show Woeltz got arrested back on May 23rd. According to the police report, the victim, who hasn't been named, told them Woeltz and Duplessie, who's 33, took his phone and passport on May 6th and demanded his password. Neither of them has said if they're guilty yet, and their lawyers didn't want to talk about it.

Some news reports are calling Woeltz a crypto investor and saying the guy who was kidnapped is Italian. Both of them apparently had some connection to a crypto hedge fund in New York, according to the New York Times. When the victim wouldn't give up his password, Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly started beating him up pretty bad until he finally got away weeks later. They reportedly tied him up, hit him with a gun, and even threatened his family. Just awful, tbh.

Duplessie was arrested more recently, on Tuesday, and is supposed to be in court on Friday. Both guys have been ordered to stay locked up by the judges. Woeltz is scheduled for something called an arraignment on June 11th. Crazy stuff, right?