June 11, 2025:
NEW YORK (AP) — A man who says he was kidnapped by two crypto investors for his Bitcoin was seen in photos and videos “laughing and smiling” and moving about Manhattan freely during the days he claimed he was held captive and tortured, lawyers for the two suspects said in court Wednesday (June 11, 2025).
William Duplessie, 32, and John Woeltz, 37, pleaded not guilty and were ordered held in custody until their next court date on July 15. Prosecutors argue the man was clearly in distress because he ran barefoot and bloodied to the nearest police officer after escaping 17 days in captivity.
However, Duplessie’s lawyer said Wednesday that videos show the accuser participating in group sex and smoking crack cocaine while “laughing and smiling the whole time.” In other photos, Sam Talkin said, the accuser is seen visiting an eyeglass store with one of the defendants and could have fled or sought help at any time.
“The story that he is selling doesn’t make sense,” Talkin said in Manhattan criminal court as the defendants were formally arraigned.
Woeltz’s lawyer Wayne Gosnell added that witnesses told him the accuser came and went as he pleased from the upscale town house where he says he was held — going to church, clubs and dinners.
The accuser, a 28-year-old Italian national, has not been named by officials. Prosecutors say the defendants have known him personally for years.
In court Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Khan argued that someone who supports the defendants was selectively leaking videos to present a counternarrative of the events.
In reality, she said, the accuser was constantly watched, was not permitted to leave the house without being guarded and was subjected to violence, including being pistol whipped and cut with a small chain saw.
The defendants also took photos of the man various poses and acts to create the impression that he was not being held against his will, Khan said.
Police searching the town house found evidence corroborating his story, including a loaded pistol, chain saw and other instruments purportedly used to torture him.
They also located photographs, including one where the defendants point a gun to the accuser’s head, another where the accuser is tied to wheelchair, and still another showing the accuser being set on fire.
When prodded by the judge, Khan explained that the man didn’t actually sustain any burn injuries because the defendants would quickly douse the flames, sometimes by urinating on him.
What’s more, she said, prosecutors believe this is not the first time the defendants have held a person against their will. They are aware of two other potential victims in two other locations, according to Khan.
Lawyers for the two men, meanwhile, sought their release on $1 million bail and home confinement with their parents. They rejected suggestions from prosecutors that their clients could flee the country.
“He’s so far from a flight risk here. He’s ready to fight this case. He’s not going anywhere,” Talkin said of Duplessie.
The two appeared handcuffed in prison uniforms and didn’t speak in court other than to formally enter their pleas.
They are charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon and face up to life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors say on May 6, the two men lured the victim to a town house in Manhattan’s posh SoHo neighborhood by threatening to kill his family.
The man said the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high.
The man said he eventually agreed to hand over his computer password, then managed to flee as his captors went to retrieve the device.
Khan said Wednesday that last month’s kidnapping was at least the third instance in which the two had convinced the man to meet them in person, only to threaten him and take his electronic devices in order to obtain his cryptocurrency.
To date, she said, he hasn’t received his money or electronic devices back.
May 28, 2025:
UNDATED (AP)- The headline-grabbing tale of an Italian man who said he was kidnapped and tortured for weeks inside an upscale Manhattan townhouse by captors seeking his bitcoin highlights a dark corner of the cryptocurrency world: the threat of violence by thieves seeking digital assets.
The alleged attempted robbery is known as a “wrench attack.” It’s a name popularized by an online comic that mocked how easily high-tech security can be undone by hitting someone with a wrench until they give up passwords.
Wrench attacks are on the rise thanks in part to cryptocurrency’s move into mainstream finance, Phil Ariss of the crypto tracing firm TRM Labs said in a recent blog post.
“Criminal groups already comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals were always likely to migrate to crypto,” Ariss said.
Some of the crypto’s key characteristics help explain why wealthy individuals who hold a lot of digital assets can be ripe targets for such attacks.
The draw
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer traders full control of their funds without the need for a bank or permission from a government to buy, sell or hold it. The trade-off is that if funds are lost or stolen, there can be no way to get them back.
Self-reliance is a key ethos of crypto. Securing and controlling one’s private keys, which are like passwords used to access one’s crypto holdings, is viewed as sacrosanct among many in the crypto community. A popular motto is “not your keys, not your coins.”
Transactions on the blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies, are permanent. And unlike cash, jewelry, gold or other items of value, thieves don’t need to carry around stolen crypto. With a few clicks, huge amounts of wealth can be transferred from one address to another.
In the case in New York, where two people have been charged, a lot of details have yet to come out, including the value of the bitcoin the victim possessed.
Crypto thefts
Stealing cryptocurrency is almost as old as cryptocurrency itself, but it’s usually done by hacking. North Korean state hackers alone are believed to have stolen billions of dollars’ worth of crypto in recent years.
In response to the threat of hacking, holders of a large amount of crypto often try and keep their private keys off the internet and stored in what are called “cold wallets.” Used properly, such wallets can defeat even the most sophisticated and determined hackers.
But they can’t defeat thieves who force a victim to give up their password to access their wallets and move money.
The case in New York is the latest in a string of high-profile wrench attacks. Several have taken place in France, where thieves cut off a crypto executive’s finger.
Mitigation
Experts suggest several ways to mitigate the threats of wrench attacks, including using wallets that require multiple approvals before any transactions.
Perhaps the most common way crypto-wealthy individuals try to prevent wrench attacks is by trying to stay anonymous. Using nicknames and cartoon avatars in social media accounts is common in the crypto community, even among top executives at popular companies.
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