Who Are the Alleged Crypto Torture Bros? $1 Million 'Party' Mansion Raided
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Italian national says he was lured to NYC by two crypto businessmen then kidnapped.
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Victim claims to have been assaulted with a chainsaw and dangled from the top of a staircase.
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A second home in Kentucky owned by the two men was the subject of a raid this week.
A six-bedroom $1 million waterfront home in Smithland, Kentucky, just outside of Paducah, was raided by the ATF and New York Police Department.
How this all unfolded is convoluted, to say the least.
It all began when an Italian national approached the NYPD claiming he had been taken hostage by two men, now dubbed the "Crypto Torture Bros".
Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, says he was lured to New York City with the promise of receiving Bitcoin allegedly stolen from him by the two individuals, John Woeltz and William Duplessie.
Instead, Carturan claims he was picked up from the airport by an off-duty NYPD detective doing security on the side, and brought to the duo’s eight-bedroom Prince Street home on May 6, according to sources and prosecutors.
Carturan, who is reportedly worth $30 million, says he was then kidnapped by the two men. They allegedly took his passport and cellphone and tied him to a chair, prosecutors said.
Carturan was also said to have been assaulted with a chainsaw and dangled from the top of a staircase.
Woeltz, 33, and Duplessie, 37, allegedly threatened to kill Carturan’s family and warned him that if he escaped they would track him down and kill him while demanding his bitcoin password. Carturan suffered serious injuries during the ordeal.
From the New York Post:
Carturan was imprisoned in the SoHo house of horrors and brutalized for 17 horrific days — until he broke free over the weekend, prosecutors said.
The new details of the shocking torture case were revealed as Duplessie (pictured above) was arraigned in the case, and as prosecutors revealed Thursday they had secured an indictment against Woeltz, who was busted May 23 when Carturan made his escape.
Carturan was rescued after he fled the townhouse barefoot on May 23 and flagged down a traffic cop for help.
The so-called “Crypto King of Kentucky” Woeltz, along with his business partner Duplessie, own another property in Kentucky, which was raided on Tuesday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the NYPD, with support from the Kentucky State Police, according to a release from authorities. It was paid for in cash back in January.
Video of the raid obtained by The Post shows vehicles rolling into the town, which has a population of less than 300, and a series of unmarked black SUVs and trucks at the property. It is unclear if anyone was there at the time of the raid.
The former captive has already contacted the Italian consulate on the Upper East Side in order to get a new passport after the alleged kidnappers reportedly destroyed it.
“Only on Saturday did the first contacts take place between the family (who said little or nothing keeping the conditions and the account of what happened confidential) and the Italian Foreign Ministry,” according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.
His family owns a herbalist shop, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
“The facts here are hotly disputed, his involvement is hotly disputed,” attorney Sanford Talkin claimed to Judge Julieta Lozano during Duplessie's nighttime arraignment hearing in late May.
Both suspects are being held in jail without bail.
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