NEW YORK (WPIX) – A second suspect has been taken into custody while a third remains at large in connection with the alleged kidnapping and torture of an Italian cryptocurrency millionaire in Manhattan, authorities said.
Beatrice Folchi was taken into police custody but had yet to be charged as of Saturday, according to authorities.
Police said the tourist had escaped Friday from a Manhattan apartment. The 28-year-old from Italy told investigators he had been kidnapped and tortured for several weeks.
John Woeltz, a 37-year-old from Kentucky, was arrested Friday and charged with assault, kidnapping, and unlawful imprisonment on Saturday. Attorneys said Woeltz forced the victim to send Bitcoin by threatening the victim’s family, then lured him to New York for the cryptocurrency.
Once there, the Italian man was robbed of his electronics and passport and tortured for three weeks, court documents alleged.
Investigators said the victim was bound to a chair in the apartment where he was shocked with electrical wires, pistol-whipped, cut with a saw, forced to smoke cocaine, and had a gun pointed to his head on multiple occasions, among other forms of physical abuse.
Believing that he was about to be shot, the victim was able to escape Friday after agreeing to give up his password, which was stored on his laptop in another room. When the suspect turned his back, prosecutor Michael Mattson said, the victim ran out of the apartment. The victim was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that Mattson said were consistent with his descriptions of being bound and assaulted.
A search of the Manhattan townhouse turned up a trove of evidence, Mattson said, including cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor and night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed to his head.
An investigation is ongoing; the third accomplice has yet to be identified. Court records detailing the alleged scheme said others were involved in the scheme to empty the victim’s Bitcoin wallet. That includes a person referred to in court records as an “unapprehended male.”
Woeltz was ordered to be held without bail, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed Saturday. He was also ordered to surrender his passport. Prosecutors said he has the means to flee, including a private jet and a helicopter. He is due back in Manhattan criminal court next week.
His lawyer, Wayne Gosnell, said Saturday in an email to the Associated Press that he had no comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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