Man charged in New York with 3-week kidnapping to try to steal Bitcoin


FILE PHOTO: John Woeltz, 37, appears for arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court after he was arrested for allegedly holding an Italian tourist hostage in an apparent scheme to steal the man's crypto currency fortune in New York City, U.S., May 24, 2025. Curtis Means/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A grand jury has indicted a 37-year-old cryptocurrency investor accused of kidnapping a business partner inManhattan's upscale Soho neighborhood for three weeks, shocking him with electric wires, and dangling him over a staircase to try to get him to give up his Bitcoin password, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

John Woeltz was arrested on May 23, court records show. According to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan criminal court, an unnamed man told New York City police that Woeltz and another man, William Duplessie, on May 6 took his electronic devices and passport demanded he give up his password so they could steal his cryptocurrency.

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