An American cryptocurrency -investor faces criminal charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing a man in Manhattan for weeks in an attempt to steal his bitcoin

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John Woeltz, 37, was arranged on Saturday on several charges, including kidnapping, assault and illegal gun possession after he had a 28-year-old Italian man caught in a luxury townhouse, authorities say.

The Italian man traveled to New York earlier this month and was lured into a five-storey rent in the Nolita neighborhood, where prosecutors say Woeltz and an unidentified accomplice began to abuse him to get his crypto-drawing book.

The townhouse, which was rented for at least $ 30,000 a month, became the place for a week’s long trial. Prosecutors say the victim was beaten, shocked by electrical wires and threatened with gun.

At one point he was dangling over a staircase and told him he would be killed if he did not give in. He was also warned that his family would be injured, the New York Times reports.

The victim escaped Friday morning and marked a traffic officer after flinging from the house. Police arrested Woeltz on the spot and discovered polaroid images showing the abuse along with weapons and other torture equipment.

Another person, Beatrice Folchi, was also arrested, while a third suspect remains largely.

This attack is part of a troubled pattern: the cryptocurrency industry has seen dozens of physical assaults this year alone. In a recent case, the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of Crypto Platform Paymium, were targeted in an attempt at kidnapping caught on video and sent online.

This attempt failed, but earlier in the same city a crypto millionaire’s father was abducted and got a finger cut off before he was rescued.

In yet another incident, David Balland, co -founder of Hardware Wallet Maker Ledger, and his wife became kidnapped from their homes. They were later rescued by the authorities and a paid ransom was seized.