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As a lot as the moment Might maybe maybe maybe also fair 29, 2025, 10:28 p.m. Published Might maybe maybe maybe also fair 29, 2025, 10:18 p.m.
Two men suspected within the kidnapping and torture of a 28-365 days-dilapidated Italian cryptocurrency investor have pleaded no longer guilty, while the investigation into their case appears to have expanded to the Original York Police Department itself.
Original York police had beforehand arrested William Duplessie, 33, and John Woeltz, 37, on the costs, to boot to a 3rd particular person, Beatrice Folchi, 24, though her prosecution is being deferred. The sufferer has no longer been publicly named.
The men are accused of kidnapping the sufferer and maintaining him hostage in a luxury townhouse in Long island’s ritzy SoHo neighborhood for more than two weeks. At some level of that time, Original York Metropolis police articulate the trio tortured the man, forcing him to take medications, dangling him from a ledge, urinating on him and electrocuting him so as to force him to hand over the non-public keys to his bitcoin. The alleged perpetrators are accused of constructing t-shirts of the sufferer with a crack pipe in his mouth and taking Polaroids of the sufferer with a gun to his head.
The sufferer escaped closing Friday, grabbing his laptop laptop and getting out of the townhouse and then trying for wait on from a traffic officer.
Duplessie entered a no longer-guilty plea to 5 a form of costs, collectively with kidnapping with an intent to personal a ransom, kidnapping and causing a bodily damage, legal possession of a loaded firearm, assault with an intent to cause a bodily damage with a weapon and unlawful imprisonment, in accordance with the court docket.
Woeltz became charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and legal possession of a firearm, and he furthermore pleaded no longer guilty, in accordance with his court docket.
Two NYPD officers, collectively with a detective assigned to Mayor Eric Adams’ protection detail, worked for both Duplessie and Woeltz in their off-duty hours and have now been placed on modified duty, Bloomberg reported Thursday. A source acquainted told CoinDesk that the two officers are no longer believed to be phase of the kidnapping, nonetheless somewhat did security work for the defendants. They may perhaps have pushed the sufferer from an airport to the townhouse, nonetheless have not any longer been tied to his torture, the source acknowledged.
A spokesperson for the NYPD acknowledged the matter became “under internal review.”
A spokesperson for the mayor’s online page online of job acknowledged in a press originate that, “Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty. We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing.”
UPDATE (Might maybe maybe maybe also fair 29, 2025, 22:27 UTC): Provides additional detail.
Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk’s managing editor for world protection and regulation, covering regulators, lawmakers and establishments. He owns < $50 in BTC and < $20 in ETH. He won a Gerald Loeb award within the beat reporting class as phase of CoinDesk's blockbuster FTX protection in 2023, and became named the Affiliation of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers' Journalist of the 365 days in 2020.
On the ideas team at CoinDesk, Cheyenne specializes in crypto regulation and crime. Cheyenne is before all the things from Houston, Texas. She studied political science at Tulane College in Louisiana. In December 2021, she graduated from CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate College of Journalism, the put she centered on business and economics reporting. She has no well-known crypto holdings.