The composite image on the left shows John Woeltz in court, wearing a white T-shirt and looking sullen. In the top right-hand corner is a surveillance image of the victim escaping barefoot.
The photo also captures a spiral staircase with white walls and blonde wooden steps. This may have been the terrifying sight that confronted crypto kidnapping victim Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan when he was threatened on a five-storey staircase while being tortured for his Bitcoin password.
Real estate photographs of the eight-bedroom townhouse on Prince Street in SoHo, which authorities claim was used to abuse and hold Carturan, 28, captive for 17 days, reveal the spiral, multi-level descent he likely faced during the traumatic experience. The Italian national, reportedly worth $30 million, sustained severe injuries during the harrowing ordeal. Manhattan prosecutors alleged that he was tied to a chair with electrical wire, tasered while standing in water, cut on the legs and arm with a chainsaw, urinated on and forced to take drugs.
The accused tormentors, crypto entrepreneur John Woeltz and Swiss businessman William Duplessie, allegedly destroyed Carturan’s passport too. Carturan managed to escape on 23 May, fleeing the townhouse barefoot and seeking help from a traffic police officer.
Afterwards, he contacted the Italian consulate on the Upper East Side to obtain a new passport. His family, who have kept details of the ordeal confidential, have initiated discussions with the Italian Foreign Ministry regarding the incident. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Carturan’s family reportedly owns a herbalist shop.
Carturan previously lived in Rivoli, a town in the Turin metropolitan area in northern Italy, before travelling to New York City on 6 May to meet Woeltz. He had studied psychology before leaving school to engage in crypto trading. Carturan had allegedly intended to retrieve Bitcoin that Woeltz and Duplessie were accused of stealing from him. However, the situation took a dark turn when they kidnapped him and threatened to harm him and his family unless he provided access to his Bitcoin wallet.
Woeltz, 37, from Kentucky, is believed to have a net worth of $100 million. Polaroids discovered at the property depicted Carturan with a gun pointed at his head and being coerced into using crack cocaine.
