A crypto investor from Kentucky was arrested in New York City this week after being accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian tourist. John Woeltz, 37, was taken into custody after his alleged victim, a 28-year-old man, broke loose from Woeltz’s ritzy Nolita apartment and alerted a nearby traffic agent, telling them that he had been a prisoner inside the investor’s pad for two weeks, according to reports. The traffic officer swiftly alerted police, who arrested Woeltz, news outlets have reported.
The alleged victim, who has since been hospitalized and whom authorities have declined to name, initially met up with Woeltz at his expensive apartment on May 6th, after the tourist arrived in the city, the New York Post writes. It wasn’t long afterward that the man was allegedly plunged into a weeks-long ordeal in which he was subjected to horrifying torture techniques. Some outlets have reported that the victim is Woeltz’s former business partner.
Woeltz was arraigned on Saturday morning and charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, CNN writes. He is being held without bail.
Much about the criminal case remains unclear. The New York Times reports that a 24-year-old woman named Beatrice Folchi was also arrested alongside Woeltz and was similarly charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. However, Folchi was apparently seen out on the streets of New York not long afterward, and told the New York Post that she had not been arrested. “Everything is going to be told but with a lawyer — I can’t make any comments right now,” Folchi told the outlet. Another man, identified by police as an “unapprehended male,” is also thought to have participated in the torture activities, the newspaper writes. It is unknown who this person is or where they may be.
Not long after the alleged victim arrived at the apartment, Woeltz is accused of stealing the man’s passport and cellphone. Woeltz and the other unidentified male then allegedly interrogated the victim, asking for his crypto wallet password. When the man refused to give it to them, police say they proceeded to imprison and torture him through a variety of horrifying and diabolical methods, according to multiple outlets.
Police found Polaroids inside the apartment of the man being tied up and tortured, the New York Post has reported. In the photos, the man could be seen bound with electrical tape and, in one image, had a gun pointed at his head, the Post writes. Police also recovered a gun from the apartment. Sources interviewed by the Post claim to have additional information about the alleged ordeal that the tourist went through. Those hair-raising allegations include:
Since being taken captive, the tourist had been bound with an electric cord, Tased while his feet were put in water, pistol whipped, forced to take cocaine and threatened to have his limbs cut off with an electric chainsaw, the sources said. The nightmare erupted from a dispute over cryptocurrency, in which the suspect allegedly tried to extort millions of dollars from the man by unleashing a litany of horrific tortures, according to sources.
When reached for comment by Gizmodo on Friday, a NYPD public information merely provided the following statement: “On Friday May 23rd, 2025, at approximately 937 hours in the vicinity of Mulberry Street and Prince Street, a 28-year-old victim approached an on-duty traffic agent and alerted him that he was a victim of an assault.” Gizmodo also reached out to Woeltz’s attorney for comment.
