NYC crypto trader accused of Italian man’s kidnap, torture threatened to kill victim’s family: prosecutors
The 37-year-old Crypto trader accused of kidnapping a 28-year-old Italian man repeatedly shocked his victim with electric wires, held him upside down from the top of a staircase, and threatened to kill the victim’s family — all to get the password to the man’s Bitcoin account, prosecutors said Saturday.
A Manhattan Criminal Court judge ordered John Woeltz held without bail on assault and kidnapping charges as police continued to search for his accomplice.
A second alleged accomplice, a 24-year-old woman, was arrested late Friday but prosecutors declined to bring charges.
The extortion plot was uncovered after Woeltz’s victim managed to escape his swanky Prince and Mulberry Sts. home in NoLita Friday morning and wave down an NYPD traffic enforcement agent, who called police.
Responding officers found Woeltz in the $30,000-a-month apartment swaddled in a plush white bathrobe.
“The guy comes out in a white bathrobe, barefoot, hands cuffed behind his back, got into a police car,” said Ciaran Tully, 64, a vendor who sells photographs on Prince St.
Woeltz did not say anything as he was brought out by police, Tully said. “He didn’t look concerned. He didn’t look worried or anything like that,” he said.
Inside, cops found Polaroid photos of Woeltz and his accomplices torturing their victim, cops said.
“He hasn’t said anything,” a police source said Friday. “He lawyered up immediately.”
Prosecutors said the victim arrived in the U.S. on May 6 and visited Woeltz. The two men share interests in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, cops said.
Things took a dark turn shortly after the victim entered the home, prosecutors said. Woeltz and his partner took the victim’s passport and all of his electronic devices as they demanded he supply them with the password to his Bitcoin account “so that the defendant and unapprehended male could take Informant’s Bitcoin” passoword, prosecutors said, according to court papers.
The victim refused, and Woeltz spent the next three weeks torturing his Italian visitor as he bound the younger man’s wrists and held him against his will, prosecutors said.
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NYPD officers stand outside a home on Prince St. near Mulberry St. in Manhattan on Friday, May 23, 2025, where a man was allegedly held against his will.
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NYPD officers stand outside a home on Prince St. near Mulberry St. in Manhattan on Friday, May 23, 2025, where a man was allegedly held against his will.
“[Woeltz] subjected Informant to beatings … using electric wires to shock Informant, using a firearm to hit informant on the head causing a laceration, pointing the firearm at Informant’s head on several occasions, and carrying Informant to the top flight of stairs within the above-mentioned location and hanging Informant over the ledge,” prosecutors said.
He also claimed he would have his victim’s family killed if he didn’t hand over the password, officials said.
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