Crypto investor charged with kidnapping, torture

A 37-year-old cryptocurrency investor was charged Saturday with kidnapping a man and beating, shocking and torturing him for weeks in a luxury townhouse in downtown Manhattan, all in a scheme to get the man's bitcoin password, authorities said.

- MAIA COLEMAN CHELSIA ROSE MARCIUS

The crypto investor, John Woeltz, was taken into custody Friday after the man managed to escape the townhouse and notify the police. Mr Woeltz was arraigned Saturday morning in Manhattan criminal court and charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a gun. He was ordered held without bail and forced to surrender his passport, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

Another person, Beatrice Folchi, was arrested Friday and charged with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, though her connection to Mr Woeltz was not immediately clear. A third person, identified only as an "unapprehended male," was also mentioned as a participant in the abuse during Mr Woeltz's arraignment.