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New York|Second Suspect Is Arrested in Bitcoin Kidnapping and Torture Case
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/nyregion/crypto-investor-torture-arrest.html
The man, William Duplessie, surrendered to the police Tuesday morning. Authorities have said the victim was an Italian man who was tormented in a luxury Manhattan townhouse for weeks.
May 27, 2025, 9:50 a.m. ET
A second person accused of kidnapping and torturing a man for three weeks to steal his Bitcoin fortune surrendered to the police on Tuesday morning, said Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.
The man’s surrender followed the arrest on Friday of two others in the case. John Woeltz, a cryptocurrency investor, was charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a gun. Beatrice Folchi was also arrested.
The police identified the man who turned himself in at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday as William Duplessie.
“We know he is going to be charged, with Mr. Woeltz, with kidnapping and false imprisonment of an associate,” Commissioner Tisch said in an interview on Fox 5 Tuesday morning.
The episode burst into public view on Friday morning when the victim, an Italian man who had arrived in New York City on May 6, escaped from a lavish, 17-room townhouse in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan and flagged down a traffic agent.
The victim, whose name has not been publicly released by the authorities, described a harrowing story of abuse, torture and threats on his life, in which his captors held a gun to his head and demanded the password to his Bitcoin wallet, according to an internal police report.
As he rebuffed their demands, the assaults escalated, he said, and he was carried to the top of the five-story home and suspended over the ledge.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
