Yet another white-collar crypto investor has been arrested in connection to a bizarre and violent criminal case involving an Italian crypto millionaire.
Last week, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, reportedly broke loose from a ritzy apartment in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood and alerted a traffic agent to his imprisonment and torture at the home over a period of roughly two weeks. The ordeal he later described to cops sounded like something out of a horror movie: Carturan claimed to have been entrapped in the 17-room townhouse, where he was tied up with electrical tape, pistol whipped, shocked with a taser while his feet were placed in water, and even threatened with a chainsaw. He also claims his captors dangled him off the roof of the building. Police sources say that Carturan’s account is largely backed up by Polaroids that were taken of the crimes and left at the scene. The apparent motive for putting Carturan through all of this was to get the key to his crypto account, which was worth millions of dollars, according to a criminal complaint.
This week, 33-year-old William Duplessie, of Florida, turned himself in to police for his alleged role in that violent episode, the New York Times reported. He has been described as a crypto investor. Duplessie’s arrest follows the arrest of 37-year-old John Woeltz, who was taken into custody last week for his alleged role in the alleged kidnapping and torture of Carturan. Woeltz, described as a crypto investor from Kentucky, was reportedly renting the $30k-a-month apartment where Carturan’s grisly ordeal is alleged to have taken place.
A 24-year-old woman named Beatrice Folchi was also arrested last week and was similarly charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. However, Folchi was released after the Manhattan DA’s Office declined to prosecute her pending further investigation, the New York Post reported. Folchi was later seen out on the streets of New York and denied to reporters that she had been arrested. It’s unclear what her exact connection to Woeltz and Duplessie is. She has alternately been described as an “actress,” a marketing specialist, and Woeltz’s assistant.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch subsequently said that Duplessie would be “charged, with Mr. Woeltz, with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate.”
A swell of violent crime has swept the crypto community over the past year. Kidnappings, assaults, and murders have targeted high-profile HODLers, as organized (and not so organized) criminal groups have smelled opportunity in the offline holdings of crypto investors.