2 charged in connection with kidnapping, torturing Crypto business partner in SoHo apartment
SOHO, Manhattan (WABC) -- Two people have been arrested and charged in connection with the kidnapping and torture of a former crypto business partner for weeks in a SoHo apartment, police said.
John Woeltz, 37, was charged with 2 counts of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm.
Woeltz lived at the address on Prince Street, police said.
A second suspect, a female, has also been arrested and charged.
Police said one more suspect, who is a male, is still at large.
Police said a group was living at the apartment on Prince Street that was turned into a house of horrors after they allegedly lured a former cryptocurrency business partner back from Italy to access his crypto account and then kidnapped and tortured him for weeks.
Woeltz, a crypto entrepreneur, was taken into custody barefoot and in a bathrobe on Friday after the 28-year-old victim escaped in the morning and ran to a traffic agent for help.
Police descended on the opulent brownstone on Prince Street as detectives tried to make sense of the depraved story they heard from the victim who said he'd been held captive for weeks.
The 28-year-old victim told police he arrived from Italy on May 6 and went to the home on Prince Street.
He told detectives they had taken his passport and tortured him for the last two weeks.
Police said the group was looking to extort him for millions in crypto after luring him back from Italy.
Investigators said they tied him up with electrical cords and tortured him with electrocutions and other types of shock treatment.
They also allegedly tased him with his feet in water, pistol-whipped him, and threatened to cut his limbs off with an electric chainsaw.
Police said they took Polaroids of themselves torturing him, one showing him bound to a chair with a gun to his head. The Polaroids were likely to extort money, either from the victim or his family back in Italy.
They also allegedly forced him to take drugs, like cocaine, and used other psychological torture, telling him he would never escape. They also allegedly put an AirTag around his neck to know where he was in the building, where he had limited mobility.
Police said the victim saw his opportunity to make an escape Friday morning because the men allegedly indicated it would be his death day.
When police arrived, they found one resident in an upstairs bathroom, wearing a bathrobe. They took him into custody and are looking for several others who were living in the house.
"I saw the SWAT team with shields and then shortly after that, I saw a guy in handcuffs come out," said Jennifer Crawford, an eyewitness to the arrest.
"The guy comes out in a white bathrobe and cuffed behind his back get into a police car," said eyewitness Ciaran Tully.
Police said the inside of the house was trashed with broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles, and a bulletproof vest in plain sight.
Police then found a gun and requested a search warrant for a more detailed search.
The victim sustained numerous cuts on his body from the torture, including one believed from the chainsaw and is being treated at Bellevue Hospital, police said.
Police said the 8-bedroom, 10 bathroom home was rented for $30,000 to $40,000 a month. It sits back from the sidewalk on the busy block of Prince Street in SoHo.
It was rented just a couple of months ago, with the most recent listing price at $75,000 per month.
Detectives are interviewing two butlers who were at the home and worked for the suspect.
Sidewalk vendor Ciaran Tully has been watching that house for months and said something has been off, he just never knew what.
"I've seen people go in and out all the time and never really ever saw the same person twice. So we were wondering like what was going on in there?" Tully said.
The investigation is ongoing.
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
