John Woeltz made headlines on Friday following his arrest in New York City for allegedly kidnapping and torturing a man in a bid to get access to his Bitcoin password. Prior to that, the 37-year-old Woeltz once held a very different reputation as a rising star in the crypto world.
Woeltz, also known as the “crypto king of Kentucky,” was apprehended on Friday after a man escaped from his luxury NoLIta apartment and flagged down a traffic agent who called police, according to the New York Times. The victim, a 28-year-old Italian citizen named Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, was allegedly held in the 17-room townhouse for three weeks.
Prosecutors allege that while in the house Woeltz and his alleged accomplice, William Duplessie, who was arrested on Tuesday, tortured Carturan by pistol-whipping him, shocking him with a taser gun, forcing him to smoke crack cocaine and cutting his leg with a saw, according to CBS News. Carturan told police that he was even suspended over a ledge at the top of the five-story home, according to the New York Times.
The ordeal ensued after Carturan, a business partner of Woeltz, arrived at the townhouse on May 6. Woeltz and his accomplice confiscated Carturan’s passport and electronic devices, threatening to harm him if he did not provide the password to his Bitcoin wallet that held millions of dollars worth of crypto.
Lawyers for Woeltz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lawyers for Duplessie declined to comment when contacted by Fortune.
Woeltz grew up in Paducah, Kentucky, about 140 miles outside of Nashville, according to an interview he gave to a local newspaper in 2020. After graduating from the University of Kentucky, Woeltz moved west to invest in tech startups.
He entered the crypto space around 2018, when he served as part of the winning team at ETHGlobal San Francisco hackathon, an annual event put on by an Ethereum-focused organization. He then went on to become the managing director of Silicon River Capital and blockchain-based investment fund, according to his interview in the local paper.
More recently, Woeltz became involved with the Bitcoin mining industry in Kentucky. He was chosen by the state office of technology to join a working group focused on using blockchain technology for “critical infrastructure, public utilities, telecommunications, emergency services,” according to the group’s annual report.
Woeltz has been charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, according to court documents.
The New York City saga comes as just the latest in an epidemic of violent kidnappings of wealth crypto owners, a phenomenon that has led some to purchase “wrench attack” insurance—a policy whose names come from a meme that shows bandits scheming to defeat high tech safeguards by hitting the victim with a wrench.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
