2nd crypto suspect wanted in torture of Italian man expected to surrender to police
SOHO, Manhattan (WABC) -- A second crypto suspect wanted for torturing an Italian man in Soho is expected to surrender to detectives this week.
The second man, described as a Swiss cryptocurrency investor, will join 37-year-old John Woeltz when he turns himself in with his lawyers.
Woeltz was held without bail when he was arraigned Saturday morning, and forced to surrender his passport.
He has been charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a firearm.
His next court date is scheduled for May 28.
Police arrested and charged two people, including Woeltz, in connection with the SoHo apartment incident on Friday. Officials say Woeltz lived at the address on Prince Street.
Another suspect, a female, was also arrested but was not charged.
Police said a group was living at the apartment on Prince Street that was turned into a house of horrors after they allegedly lured a former cryptocurrency business partner back from Italy to get the password to access his crypto account and then kidnapped and tortured him for weeks.
Woeltz, a crypto entrepreneur, was taken into custody barefoot and in a bathrobe on Friday after the 28-year-old victim escaped in the morning and ran to a traffic agent for help.
Police descended on the opulent brownstone on Prince Street as detectives tried to make sense of the depraved story they heard from the victim, who said he'd been held captive for weeks.
The 28-year-old victim told police he arrived from Italy on May 6 and went to the home on Prince Street.
He told detectives they had taken his passport and tortured him for the last two weeks.
Police said the group was looking to extort him for millions in crypto after luring him back from Italy.
Investigators said they tied him up with electrical cords and tortured him with electrocutions and other types of shock treatment.
They also allegedly tased him with his feet in water, pistol-whipped him, and threatened to cut his limbs off with an electric chainsaw.
Police said they took Polaroids of themselves torturing him, one showing him bound to a chair with a gun to his head. The Polaroids were likely to extort money, either from the victim or his family back in Italy.
They also allegedly forced him to take drugs, like cocaine, and used other psychological torture, telling him he would never escape. They also allegedly put an AirTag around his neck to know where he was in the building, where he had limited mobility.
Police said the victim saw his opportunity to make an escape Friday morning because the men allegedly indicated it would be his death day.
When police arrived, they found one resident in an upstairs bathroom, wearing a bathrobe. They took him into custody and are looking for several others who were living in the house.
"I saw the SWAT team with shields and then shortly after that, I saw a guy in handcuffs come out," said Jennifer Crawford, an eyewitness to the arrest.
"The guy comes out in a white bathrobe and cuffed behind his back gets into a police car," said eyewitness Ciaran Tully.
Police said the inside of the house was trashed with broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles, and a bulletproof vest in plain sight. Investigators found a saw, crack cocaine, blood, bullets, and a gun, along with Polaroids of the victim with a gun to his head.
Police then found a gun and requested a search warrant for a more detailed search.
The victim sustained numerous cuts on his body from the torture, including one believed to be from the chainsaw, and is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, police said.
Police said the 8-bedroom, 10 bathroom home was rented for $30,000 to $40,000 a month. It sits back from the sidewalk on the busy block of Prince Street in SoHo.
It was rented just a couple of months ago, with the most recent listing price at $75,000 per month.
Detectives are interviewing two butlers who were at the home and worked for the suspect.
Sidewalk vendor Ciaran Tully has been watching that house for months and said something has been off; he just never knew what.
"I've seen people go in and out all the time, and never really ever saw the same person twice. So we were wondering like, what was going on in there?" Tully said.
The investigation is ongoing.
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