Crypto investor tortured man for weeks for bitcoin password, prosecutors say

A New York City crypto investor is accused of kidnapping a man and torturing the 28-year-old to extort cryptocurrency from him. Photo / Getty Images

A New York City crypto investor kidnapped a 28-year-old man and tortured him for weeks in a ritzy eight-bedroom Soho townhouse, prosecutors and police say.

Authorities also accused John Woeltz, 37, of electrocuting the man with wires, beating him with a gun and forcing him to smoke cocaine in an attempt to extort cryptocurrency from him.

On Saturday Woeltz was charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Court records allege Woeltz kidnapped his victim by luring him with the promise of returning bitcoin that Woeltz had already extorted from him, before seizing the victim’s passport and electronic devices on May 6.

Woeltz and a person described in court records as an “unapprehended accomplice” allegedly threatened to kill the victim’s family if he did not provide a password for Woeltz to access the victim’s bitcoin.

The man escaped and was bloodied and shoeless when he flagged down officers on the street and reported Woeltz to authorities, the district attorney’s office said in an email to The Washington Post.

Prosecutors said Woeltz is originally from Kentucky and deemed a flight risk as he has a private jet and helicopter. He is being held without bail.

Wayne Gosnell, an attorney for Woeltz, declined to comment.

Woeltz and a male accomplice had previously forced the man they kidnapped to send them bitcoin by threatening to have his family killed, prosecutors said. Woeltz and his accomplice allegedly told the man to come to New York to get his cryptocurrency back, then kidnapped him.

Prosecutors did not state the amount of bitcoin that Woeltz allegedly demanded. The alleged victim was a 28-year-old man who arrived in New York from Italy in early May, according to the Associated Press.

Woeltz and his accomplice held the man, bound by his wrists, in the upscale townhouse where they both lived, according to prosecutors.

Over the next three weeks, the duo allegedly tortured the man, urinated on him and held him over the ledge of a flight of stairs while threatening to kill him.

The victim was held in a luxury six-story Prince St townhouse known for loud partying, according to neighbours who spoke with NBC New York.

After allegedly being pistol-whipped by Woeltz and believing he would soon be shot, the victim feigned capitulation and told his captors he’d give up his bitcoin password.

When Woeltz went to retrieve the man’s laptop from another room, the victim fled down the stairs, prosecutors said.

“The victim ran outside and immediately flagged down a traffic agent who then called 911. The victim was [bloodied] and had no shoes on,” prosecutors wrote in a bail application shared with The Post.

“The victim was brought to the hospital, traumatised, with a laceration to his face, injury to his wrists consistent with being bound, and various other injuries to his head and body.”

Police searched the townhouse and recovered a saw, cocaine, chicken wire, body armour, night-vision goggles, ballistic helmets and firearms ammunition, according to prosecutors.

They also allegedly found Polaroid photos of the kidnapped man with a gun held to his head and T-shirts printed with photos of the kidnapped man with a cocaine pipe in his mouth.

Woeltz faces up to life in prison for the felony kidnapping charge, prosecutors said. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and is next due in court Wednesday.