Scheme to Take Torture Victim’s Crypto Went Back Months, Prosecutors Say

New York|Scheme to Take Torture Victim’s Crypto Went Back Months, Prosecutors Say

For months, two cryptocurrency investors pressured their longtime friend to hand over his electronic devices and the passkey to a crypto account worth millions of dollars, according to prosecutors and an internal police report.

The investors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, asked the man to meet three different times. At the first meeting, outside Manhattan, the investors persuaded the man, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, to give them some of his devices and the passkey, prosecutors said.

Then, months later, Mr. Woeltz and Mr. Duplessie invited Mr. Carturan to come to New York City for a second meeting, assuring him that they would return the money. Instead, prosecutors said, they demanded more of his devices and, feeling threatened, Mr. Carturan obliged.

But Mr. Woeltz and Mr. Duplessie wanted even more. Prosecutors said a third meeting, on May 6, led to Mr. Woeltz and Mr. Duplessie kidnapping and torturing Mr. Carturan in ways that included electrocution, pistol whipping and lighting him on fire.

The new details in the criminal case that has captured international attention emerged on Wednesday, when prosecutors unsealed a 12-count indictment charging Mr. Woeltz and Mr. Duplessie with first-degree kidnapping, assault and several other charges. It was the latest development in the sordid case against the investors who are accused of torturing Mr. Carturan for almost three weeks inside a luxury townhouse in Manhattan.

Both men were charged last month with torture and kidnapping in a lower court in Manhattan. The two have since been indicted by a grand jury, though the exact charges in the indictment had remained sealed until Wednesday’s hearing.