Crypto Gone Criminal: NYC Investors Allegedly Kidnap Victim for Bitcoin Keys

In a plot ripped from a cyber-noir thriller, two cryptocurrency investors face charges after allegedly orchestrating a kidnapping to extract a victim’s Bitcoin wallet credentials. The incident—straight out of Wall Street’s darker fantasies—highlights the extreme lengths some will go for digital gold.

Law enforcement sources confirm the suspects targeted the victim in broad daylight, demanding access to his crypto holdings. Forget ’not your keys, not your coins’—this case rewrites the mantra as ’not your keys, not your freedom.’

While decentralized finance promises liberation from traditional banking, it seems some participants missed the memo on ’non-violent’ innovation. The irony? These alleged perpetrators might’ve gotten away clean if they’d just HODL’d their own bags instead of turning to crime.

• Two crypto investors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, have been charged with kidnapping and torturing a 28-year-old Italian man in an attempt to steal his Bitcoin password.
• The victim was held captive for almost three weeks in a luxury Manhattan townhouse, where he was beaten, shocked, and threatened before he managed to escape and raise an alarm.

Two crypto investors have been charged with kidnapping and assaulting a man in a New York City townhouse after attempting to force him to reveal his Bitcoin password. Authorities say the two investors allegedly held the victim against his will and tried to use threats and violence to gain access to his cryptocurrency wallet. 

On Saturday, 24th of May, John Woeltz, a 37-year-old crypto investor, was charged for holding a man and hurting him for weeks in a fancy Manhattan home to get his Bitcoin code, officials said. The suspect, John Woeltz, was arrested on Friday after the victim found a way to escape and told the police. He faced court on Saturday and was charged with hurting, taking, and locking up the man and having a weapon. 

According to the details, he will stay in jail without any bail opportunity, and he will also give up his passport, the Manhattan district attorney said.

The second suspect, William Duplessie, 32 years old, is well known as the co-founder of Pangea Blockchain Fund and a strong supporter of blockchain projects. He was arrested four days after the 28-year-old suspect ran out of a rich Manhattan home, barefoot and covered in blood. According to the details, he is an accomplice to the attempted Bitcoin theft. 

How the Two Crypto Investors Tortured the Italian Man

On Friday around 9:30 a.m., a 28-year-old man from Italy ran out of a townhouse in Manhattan’s NoLIta area and flagged down a traffic agent. According to the details, he told the officers there that he arrived in New York on the 6th of May and went to the home rented by John Woeltz, a crypto investor from Kentucky, who was paying over $30,000 per month for the property.

When he got inside, Woeltz and another man took his passport and devices, demanding his Bitcoin password. When he refused to give in, they tied him up and tortured him for nearly three weeks, beating, shocking, and threatening to kill him. At one point, they held him over a staircase ledge and warned they would harm his family if he didn’t comply. The abuse lasted until the victim escaped and found help.

Duplessie and Woeltz are well-known, business-minded men actively involved in the crypto space. Their arrests have raised serious concerns about the darker side of the crypto industry that involves moving massive sums of money and little regulation, which ultimately leads to dangerous consequences.

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