Man charged in New York with 3 week kidnapping to try to steal bitcoin | Today news

By Luc Cohen New York (Reuters)-A Grand Jury has charged a 37-year-old cryptocurrency investor who is accused of kidnapping a business partner in Manhattan’s Upscale Soho neighborhood, shocked him with electric wires and made him disappear to give him Wednesday. John Woeltz was arrested on May 23, according to court records. According to a criminal complaint filed in the Manhattan Criminal Court, an unnamed New York police told Woeltz and another man, William Duplession, on May 6, his electronic devices and demanded the passport to steal his password so they could steal his cryptocurrency. Woeltz and Duplession (33) have not yet entered into the pleas. Their lawyers declined to comment. Local media called Woeltz a cryptocurrency investor and described the alleged victim as an Italian man. Both had ties with a crypto hedging fund in New York, reports The New York Times, citing an internal police report described by an official of the law enforcement. When the man refused to share his password, Woeltz and duplession allegedly started a series of cruel beats until the man managed to escape weeks later. They tied his wrists, hit him with a gun and threatened to kill his family, according to the charges against the two men. Duplession was arrested on Tuesday and will be in court on Friday for a preliminary trial. Judges ordered both men to be arrested. Woeltz will be arrested on June 11 (reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell)