A certain American encryption investor is suspected of kidnapping and torturing an Italian businessman in New York in an attempt to obtain his encryption account password.

John Woeltz, a 37-year-old U.S. cryptocurrency investor, and a 24-year-old suspected female associate are accused of illegally detaining and torturing a 28-year-old Italian businessman in an upscale apartment in Manhattan, New York, for more than two weeks in an attempt to obtain the password to his crypto account. The victim arrived in New York on May 6 to meet with Woeltz, with whom he had been doing business, before being seized of his passport and subjected to electric shocks, drug coercion, chainsaw threats, and other abuses. It is reported that the police found multiple Polaroid photos of the victims being tied up and tortured at the scene, as well as guns, chainsaws and other tools. The victim eventually escaped on May 23 and called the police. John Woeltz has been charged with multiple counts of first-degree kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and unlawful possession of a weapon, and the investigation is ongoing. （The Block）