Cheddar RSS

Second crypto investor is charged with kidnapping and torturing


Listen Later

NEW YORK (AP) — A second cryptocurrency investor surrendered to police Tuesday in the alleged kidnapping of a man who said he was tortured for weeks inside an upscale Manhattan townhouse by captors seeking the password to access his Bitcoin account.

William Duplessie, 32, faces charges of kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.

His arrest comes four days after the alleged victim — a 28-year-old Italian national — escaped, bloodied and barefoot, from a lavish townhouse where he said he had been severely beaten, drugged, shocked and threatened with death for nearly three weeks.

On Friday evening, hours after the man’s escape, the crypto investor John Woeltz was taken into custody and charged in the alleged kidnapping scheme.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Duplessie had an attorney who could speak for him. Court records didn’t list one. Woeltz’s attorney has declined to comment.

Authorities said the pair lured the victim into an eight-bedroom townhouse in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood, one of the most expensive in the city, on May 6 to steal his Bitcoin fortune.

Over the next 17 days, the man told police he was bound by the wrists, shocked with electrical wires, pistol-whipped, cut on the leg with a saw and forced to smoke from a crack pipe. At one point, he said, he was dangled from the home’s top flight of stairs.

Believing he would soon be killed, the victim said he agreed Friday morning to give the men access to the password.

As the men went to retrieve his computer, the victim was able to escape from the home and flag down a traffic agent.

A search of the townhouse turned up a trove of evidence, prosecutors said, including cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor, night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed to his head and a crack pipe in his mouth.

The victim was hospitalized with injuries to his wrists consistent with being bound, cuts to his face and other injuries, authorities said.

Duplessie is due to be arraigned in a Manhattan court on Tuesday afternoon.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Cheddar RSSBy Cheddar


More shows like Cheddar RSS

View all
NPR News Now by NPR

NPR News Now

14,311 Listeners

The Excerpt by USA TODAY

The Excerpt

1,201 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,562 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,170 Listeners

The NewsWorthy by Erica Mandy

The NewsWorthy

1,363 Listeners

American Fever Dream by Betches Media

American Fever Dream

2,121 Listeners

9 to 5ish with theSkimm by theSkimm

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

1,870 Listeners

Start Here by ABC News

Start Here

6,351 Listeners

Skimm This by theSkimm

Skimm This

3,621 Listeners

Fiction - Comedy Fiction by The Sunset Explorers

Fiction - Comedy Fiction

6,447 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,244 Listeners

BuzzFeed Daily by BuzzFeed & iHeartPodcasts

BuzzFeed Daily

573 Listeners

Consider This from NPR by NPR

Consider This from NPR

6,045 Listeners

Morning Announcements by Betches Media

Morning Announcements

1,474 Listeners

We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle and Audacy

We Can Do Hard Things

41,337 Listeners