A Holiday Inn clerk in Paducah, Kentucky, called 911 after a distressed guest showed them translated texts from her son, visiting from Switzerland. The messages said:
“They don’t want to let me go, bitcoin… Need help, they are armed to the brim.”
The man, later identified as Michael Mauer, had previously worked with Woeltz on a crypto venture called Grin Coin. Police eventually located Mauer and released him.
The property where he was allegedly held had already been flagged by law enforcement for ongoing issues.
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SoHo Crypto Torture Case
On May 23, Duplessie and Woeltz were arrested and charged with kidnapping 28-year-old Italian crypto trader Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan.
Prosecutors allege that the pair held Carturan hostage and tortured him in a SoHo townhouse while trying to extract his crypto wallet passwords.
According to video footage, Carturan fled the townhouse barefoot, appearing visibly shaken. Prosecutors say the men wrote a “manifesto” outlining their plot to steal crypto from foreign investors.
