New York police have arrested a 37-year-old former cryptocurrency developer and an alleged female accomplice after a dramatic rescue of an Italian tourist who was held captive, beaten and threatened for more than two weeks in a luxury SoHo townhouse.
John Woeltz, once involved in privacy-coin projects such as HCash and the early security audit for Grin, was taken into custody on Friday after his 28-year-old victim escaped the Prince Street residence and flagged down a traffic agent for help. Twenty-four-year-old Beatrice Folchi, a marketing consultant who police say acted as Woeltz’s assistant, was arrested shortly afterwards. Investigators believe at least one additional male suspect is still at large. ABC7 New YorkBBC
Lured by a Fake Business Meeting
According to the criminal complaint, the victim flew from Italy to New York on 6 May for what he believed was a business meeting about digital-asset investments. Once inside the eight-bedroom townhouse — rented for up to US $75,000 a month — he was stripped of his passport, bound with electrical cords and repeatedly tortured with electrocution, beatings and threats from a pistol and an electric chainsaw. Detectives later recovered Polaroid photographs showing a gun pressed to the victim’s head, images police say were intended to force him to reveal passwords to cryptocurrency accounts thought to contain “millions of dollars.” ABC7 New YorkBBC
Escape and Arrest
The victim told police his captors announced “it would be his death day” on Friday morning, prompting him to risk an escape while some of the group slept. Barefoot and bloodied, he ran into the street where an NYPD traffic officer called for backup. SWAT officers stormed the property moments later, arresting Woeltz — still in a bathrobe — and seizing firearms, night-vision goggles, bullet-resistant vests and the Polaroids. ABC7 New York
Charges and Court Appearance
Woeltz was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Saturday on first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal-possession-of-a-weapon charges. He was ordered held without bail. Folchi faces identical kidnapping and imprisonment counts. Authorities say more charges, including attempted grand larceny, could follow once forensic analysts determine the value of cryptocurrency targeted in the scheme. BBC
Background: From Privacy Coins to Violent Crime
Blockchain–forensics records reviewed by investigators show Woeltz contributed code to HCash in 2017 and led an early security review of Grin the following year. In a 2018 conference talk, he warned that “losing privacy could lead to real-world violence against users” — a statement that now appears grimly prescient. Bitcoin AddictThe Block
Growing Wave of Crypto-Related Kidnappings
The SoHo case is the latest in a global rise of violent extortion aimed at wealthy cryptocurrency holders. Earlier this month French police rescued the father of a crypto-entrepreneur whose kidnappers had severed a finger to demand a €5 million bitcoin ransom. Similar abductions have been reported in the U.K. and Las Vegas this year, prompting security experts to urge high-net-worth investors to compartmentalise digital-asset credentials and avoid publicising their holdings. Mining Pro
What Happens Next
NYPD detectives are tracking additional suspects and examining on-chain data to identify any attempted transfers from the victim’s wallets. Prosecutors have until early June to seek a grand-jury indictment; if convicted of first-degree kidnapping, Woeltz faces a potential life sentence.