Crypto-kidnapping (and torture) spreads in New York

We covered it in 2023 when it showed up in Seoul, South Korea and also after it happened several times in Paris, France, earlier this year. This time it is New York where another brutal case of crypto-kidnapping (and torture) has taken place.

Gangnam

In 2023, Seoul’s wealthy Gangnam district (the one from the famous song, yes) was rocked by a brutal robbery and murder. Three men kidnapped a 48-year-old woman and tortured her to gain access to her digital currencies, worth around $4 million. Her body was buried in a nearby field afterwards.

This new form of crypto-crime is now spreading like wildfire. Last month, the daughter of a crypto millionaire was nearly kidnapped in broad daylight in Paris, France. This was yet another kidnapping case in which criminals demanded passwords to crypto accounts in exchange for the victim’s life. The French interior minister already announced a series of measures given that France has many crypto millionaires.

Polaroid

The latest case of crypto kidnapping has taken place over the past three weeks in a luxury apartment in Manhattan, New York.

There, John Woeltz, a crypto investor from Kentucky, held an Italian businessman captive for weeks in order to obtain the password to his Bitcoin accounts. Eventually, the man managed to escape and alerted the police, who then arrested Woeltz.

They discovered several Polaroid photos in the apartment showing the businessman tied up with electrical wire and tortured, including one in which he was tied to a chair with a gun pointed at his head.

Crypto-kidnapping seems to be taking on increasingly brazen forms.