Two men suspected of kidnapping and torture of a 28-year-old Italian cryptocurrency investor have pleaded guilty while investigating their case appears to have expanded to the New York Police Department itself.
New York police had previously arrested William Duplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37, on the charges, as well as a third individual, Beatrice Folchi, 24, though her prosecution is postponed. The victim has not been named in public.
The men are accused of kidnapping the victim and held him hostage in a luxury townhouse in Manhattan’s Ritzy Soho quarter for more than two weeks. During this time, New York City police say the trio tortured the man and forced him to take drugs, dangling him from a ledge, won and electrocutters in an attempt to force him to hand over the private keys to his bitcoin. The alleged perpetrators are accused of having made t-shirts of the victim with a cracking tube in the mouth and taken polaroids of the victim with a gun against the head.
The victim escaped last Friday, grabbed his laptop and got out of the townhouse and then sought help from a traffic officer.
Duplessie entered into a non-Guilty plea for five different charges, including kidnapping with an intention to collect a ransom, kidnapping and cause a physical injury, criminal possession of a burdened firearm, assault with an intention to cause a physical injury with a weapon and illegal imprisonment according to the court of the court.
Woeltz was indicted for kidnapping, assault, illegal imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, and he also did not plead guilty, according to his court.
Two NYPD officers, including a detective awarded to Mayor Eric Adams’ protection details, worked for both Duplessie and Woeltz in their off-duty-hours and has now been placed on altered duty, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. A source that is well known, Coindesk told that the two officers are not believed to be part of the kidnapping, but rather performed security work for the defendants. They may have driven the victim from an airport to the townhouse, but are not tied to his torture, the source said.
A spokesman for NYPD said the case was “during internal review.”
A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement that “Each city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off -service. We are disturbed by these claims and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on changed customs. The investigation is in progress.”
Update (29 May 2025, 22:27 UTC): Adding additional details.
