Two cryptocurrency investors have been charged after an Italian man claimed he was kidnapped and held hostage in a luxurious New York town house, where he was allegedly tortured for the password to his Bitcoin account.
The victim escaped bloodied and barefoot from the lavish property in Manhattan on Friday, telling authorities he had been severely beaten, drugged, shocked with electrical wires and threatened with death for nearly three weeks.
The case comes amid a spike in crypto theft, with a recent wave of violence directed at wealthy holders of virtual currency.
William Duplessie, 33, has been charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon, according to police.
John Woeltz, 37, is charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, court records show.
The case has already drawn considerable interest, even though the sums of money contained in the victim’s Bitcoin accounts are not known.
What happened in the luxury house?
The 28-year-old victim is believed to have arrived in New York City from Italy in early May and was abducted on 6 May, authorities say.
He reported being bound by the wrists and tortured for weeks inside the eight-bedroom town house.
His captors, according to prosecutors, drugged him, used electric wires to shock him, hit him in the head with a firearm and, at one point, carried him to the top of a flight of stairs where they dangled him over a ledge and threatened to kill him if he didn’t share his Bitcoin password.
Believing that he was about to be shot, the victim agreed to give up his password but was able to escape on Friday, prosecutor Michael Mattson said.
He ran out into the street and flagged down a passing traffic agent.
He was taken to a hospital and treated for injuries that Mr Mattson told a judge were consistent with being bound and assaulted.
A search of the town house turned up a trove of evidence, Mr Mattson said, including cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armour and night vision goggles, ammunition and polaroid photos of the victim with a gun pointed to his head.
Woeltz, who prosecutors say has access to a private jet and a helicopter, was ordered by the court to surrender his passport.
Lawyers for Duplessie and Woeltz declined requests for comment by the Associated Press news agency.
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‘Wrench attacks’ on crypto owners
There have been a series of violent attacks on owners of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies recently, exposing the vulnerability of the technology.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin offer traders full control of their funds without the need for a bank or permission from a government to buy, sell or hold it. The trade-off is that if funds are lost or stolen, there is no way to get them back.
Funds are secured with private keys, similar to passwords. If the key is compromised or stolen, criminals can transfer huge amounts of wealth in just a few clicks.
Robberies targeting cryptocurrency holders are known as “wrench attacks” – a name popularised by an online comic that mocked how easily high-tech security can be undone by hitting someone with a wrench until they give up passwords.
Once worth just pennies, Bitcoin are currently worth around £80,000.
