I can't believe the guy had the strength to hold out for weeks. That's crazy. I thought at first this was a story I had heard of earlier this week, but no, it's another incident. This article...
I can't believe the guy had the strength to hold out for weeks. That's crazy. I thought at first this was a story I had heard of earlier this week, but no, it's another incident. This article links to the other incident. Matt Levine had touched on this topic in a recent newsletter. Beating someone for their ATM PIN is not very useful since transactions can be reversed and you can be found relatively easily. Beating someone into making an irreversible cryptocurrency transaction that comes with privacy built-in though..
A 37-year-old cryptocurrency investor was charged on Saturday with kidnapping a man and beating, shocking and torturing him for weeks inside a luxury townhouse in downtown Manhattan, all in a scheme to get the man’s Bitcoin password, the authorities said.
The crypto investor, John Woeltz, was taken into custody on Friday after the man managed to escape the townhouse and notify the police. Mr. Woeltz was arraigned on 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 also arrested on 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.
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The abuse continued for about three weeks until Friday morning, when the man managed to escape and alert the traffic agent.
Police officers from the Fifth Precinct arrived at the townhouse shortly after his escape on Friday and took Mr. Woeltz into custody. The victim was taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition, the police said.
Inside the home, the police found Polaroid pictures showing the man bound and being assaulted, the law enforcement official said. They also found a gun and several other items used for torture inside the house.
I can't believe the guy had the strength to hold out for weeks. That's crazy. I thought at first this was a story I had heard of earlier this week, but no, it's another incident. This article links to the other incident. Matt Levine had touched on this topic in a recent newsletter. Beating someone for their ATM PIN is not very useful since transactions can be reversed and you can be found relatively easily. Beating someone into making an irreversible cryptocurrency transaction that comes with privacy built-in though..
I have a funny feeling that crypto loyalists are saying this isn't a problem because the guy managed to hold out.
https://archive.is/JiYYY
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Three weeks? That's wild.