The bizarre case of a man being tortured for over two weeks over his cryptocurrency portfolio has gotten even stranger with its latest development.
In a video obtained by TMZ, Italian businessman Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan could be seen tied to a wheelchair as he appeared to be cooking crack cocaine with an air fryer. The video was said to be taken in the SoHo, New York home where John Woeltz and William Duplessie allegedly held him hostage and tortured him for 17 days in an effort to get access to his cryptocurrency wallets.
In the clip, he didn't seem to be in distress and could be heard talking to approximately three other people off-camera. "You're in a wheelchair cooking crack," a voice is heard in the strange clip. "Don't get me in the crack video, bro," another voice said. According to the metadata of the video, it was recorded at the SoHo property on May 11 at 1:45 a.m. ET. That means that it was several days after Carturan was allegedly captured by Woeltz on May 6. Carturan later escaped on May 23.
According to law enforcement sources involved with the case, Carturan was forced to smoke crack by his captors, and they recorded videos of him. Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly tortured him and recorded it as blackmail material to get his password to a Bitcoin wallet worth millions of dollars. The video curiously shows that more than Woeltz and Duplessie were involved in the alleged scheme, but it's unclear who, exactly, was present as the clip was recorded.
Woeltz and Duplessie are currently being held without bail on charges including kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. When Woeltz was arrested, authorities said that he threatened to cut off Carturan's limbs and tased him while his feet were in water. The status of Carturan is unclear, but he was taken to a nearby hospital following his dramatic escape.
