A crypto investor who allegedly kidnapped and tortured a man to extort a massive stash of Bitcoin (BTC) was reportedly released on Thursday on a $1 million bond.
A Manhattan judge granted 37-year-old John Woeltz bail, releasing him from Rikers Island, where he was detained after his arrest on May 23rd, reports the New York Post.
-->Woeltz allegedly kidnapped and tortured Bitcoin investor Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan in a Manhattan apartment, where he was beaten and had his family’s lives threatened to get him to give up his Bitcoin wallet passphrase.
Carturan said he was considering giving up access to his wallet with $100 million in BTC when he thought Woeltz was going to shoot him. But when Woeltz left to retrieve his laptop in another room, the victim used the chance to escape the apartment and flag down a traffic officer in the street for help.
But before escaping, Carturan was allegedly bound by the wrists and tortured for weeks inside the apartment, including being drugged, shocked with electricity, hit in the head with a firearm and dangled over a flight of stairs
Manhattan Judge Gregory Carro says that the torture can be seen as “fraternity-like hazing.” At a previous hearing, Woeltz’s lawyer, Wayne Gosnell, brushed off the alleged torture scheme and claimed that Carturan was essentially just being hazed.
John Woeltz was ordered to home confinement and agreed to leave his apartment only for emergencies, doctor appointments and lawyer meetings.
