Crypto Investor Accused of Wild Kidnapping Plot

Okay, so get this wild story. Apparently, a grand jury just indicted this dude, John Woeltz. He's 37 and supposedly into cryptocurrency. The accusation is pretty wild: he allegedly kidnapped a business partner in fancy-pants Soho, right here in Manhattan. They're saying he held the guy for three whole weeks! Sounds intense, right?

Prosecutors say Woeltz did some really messed-up stuff, like shocking the guy with electric wires and even dangling him over a staircase. All this was, get this, to try and force him to cough up his Bitcoin password. Seriously, some people will do anything for crypto, I guess? Woeltz got picked up by the cops on May 23rd.

So, according to the criminal complaint, this unnamed guy told NYC police that Woeltz and another fella, William Duplessie, took his phone, passport, and basically demanded his password so they could swipe his cryptocurrency. Woeltz and Duplessie, who's 33, haven't said whether they're guilty or not yet. Their lawyers aren't talking either, which is pretty standard, tbh.

The local news has been calling Woeltz a crypto investor, and they're saying the guy who was allegedly kidnapped is Italian. Both these guys had some sort of connection to a crypto hedge fund in New York, according to the New York Times. They got that info from an internal police report, which was described by a law enforcement official. Interesting details, huh?

When the victim refused to give up his password, Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly started really beating him up. This went on for weeks until the guy actually managed to get away. They tied his wrists, hit him on the head with a gun, and even said they'd kill his family. Just awful stuff based on the complaints against them.

Duplessie got arrested on Tuesday and is supposed to be in court for a preliminary hearing on Friday. The judges have ordered both Woeltz and Duplessie to stay in jail for now. Woeltz is scheduled to be arraigned on June 11th. It makes you wonder, what drives people to do stuff like this over digital money?