Chloe Bennet reveals Crypto Torture/Kidnapping on the rise: ‘Wrench Attacks’ on wealthy Crypto holders & NYPD Detectives are also involved

Chloe Bennet Side-boob to protest the crypto violence…

Why ‘wrench attacks’ on wealthy crypto holders are on the rise

New York police officers arrest John Woeltz, Friday, May 23, 2025, in New York, who was charged with kidnapping, assaulting and holding a man against his will for several weeks in an upscale Manhattan town house.

The headline-grabbing tale of an Italian man who said he was kidnapped and tortured for weeks inside an upscale Manhattan townhouse by captors seeking his bitcoin highlights a dark corner of the cryptocurrency world: the threat of violence by thieves seeking digital assets.

The alleged attempted robbery is known as a “wrench attack.” It’s a name popularized by an online comic that mocked how easily high-tech security can be undone by hitting someone with a wrench until they give up passwords.

Wrench attacks are on the rise thanks in part to cryptocurrency’s move into mainstream finance, Phil Ariss of the crypto tracing firm TRM Labs said in a recent blog post.

“Criminal groups already comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals were always likely to migrate to crypto,” Ariss said.

Some of the crypto’s key characteristics help explain why wealthy individuals who hold a lot of digital assets can be ripe targets for such attacks.

Inside millionaire brats’ wild bender as they tortured crypto businessman in Manhattan townhouse

The so-called Crypto King of Kentucky and his business partner hosted lavish parties in the luxury Manhattan townhouse where they allegedly tortured a man for weeks.

John Woeltz and William Duplessie are accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian bitcoin investor for 17 days in the basement of a swanky rented SoHo apartment in order to extort his cryptocurrency password.

Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan escaped the alleged house of horrors on Friday – bloodied and barefoot – and told police he had been severely beaten, drugged, shocked with electrical wires and threatened with death.

William Duplessie is escorted out of the New York Police 13th Precinct after turning himself in on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in New York.

John Woeltz, of Kentucky, is walked out of the NYPD 5th precinct after he was arrested for allegedly holding an Italian tourist hostage and torturing him for nearly three week. He is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a firearm

Woeltz, 37, started renting the multimillion-dollar townhouse on March 17, paying his landlord between $75,000 and $95,000 per month to reside there, insiders told TMZ.

He and Duplessie, 32, intent on climbing the elite Manhattan social ladder, would reportedly host extravagant parties at the residence, offering guests drugs, alcohol and food from NYC hotspots including Blue Ribbon Sushi, Nobu, and Cipriani’s.

Photographs captured from inside the stunning six-story home show how the pair littered the kitchen with cocaine, empty top shelf liquor bottles, including Don Julio and Greygoose, mixers, disposable vapes, and empty take-out containers.

The pair also regularly frequented The Box, an exclusive erotic nightclub in Nolita, with insiders alleging they would send upwards of $100,000 during a night out and often brought women back to the townhouse to continue partying.

Police have locked down the property while they carry out their investigation. Officials will not release the home back to its owner until the probe is complete.

John Woeltz and William Duplessie were routinely partying while they allegedly tortured a man in a SoHo townhouse for weeks. Sources familiar with their wild nights out claim Duplessie (pictured at The Box club in March) would always be shirtless at nightclubs because he ‘wanted to act like the man’ and ‘thought he was in the mafia’

John Woeltz and William Duplessie held lavish parties at the stunning six-story SoHo townhouse where crypto bros allegedly kidnapped and tortured an Italian bitcoin investor, sources say. Photographs captured from inside the home show how the pair littered the kitchen with cocaine, (circled) empty top shelf liquor bottles, including Don Julio and Greygoose, mixers, disposable vapes, and empty take-out containers.

Woeltz and Duplessie (left) regularly frequented The Box, an exclusive erotic nightclub in Nolita, with insiders alleging they would send upwards of $100,000 during a night out and often brought women back to the townhouse to continue partying

The draw

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin offer traders full control of their funds without the need for a bank or permission from a government to buy, sell or hold it. The trade-off is that if funds are lost or stolen, there can be no way to get them back.

Self-reliance is a key ethos of crypto. Securing and controlling one’s private keys, which are like passwords used to access one’s crypto holdings, is viewed as sacrosanct among many in the crypto community. A popular motto is “not your keys, not your coins.”

Transactions on the blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies, are permanent. And unlike cash, jewelry, gold or other items of value, thieves don’t need to carry around stolen crypto. With a few clicks, huge amounts of wealth can be transferred from one address to another.

In the case in New York, where two people have been charged, a lot of details have yet to come out, including the value of the bitcoin the victim possessed.

Crypto thefts

Stealing cryptocurrency is almost as old as cryptocurrency itself, but it’s usually done by hacking. North Korean state hackers alone are believed to have stolen billions of dollars’ worth of crypto in recent years.

In response to the threat of hacking, holders of a large amount of crypto often try and keep their private keys off the internet and stored in what are called “cold wallets.” Used properly, such wallets can defeat even the most sophisticated and determined hackers.

But they can’t defeat thieves who force a victim to give up their password to access their wallets and move money.

The case in New York is the latest in a string of high-profile wrench attacks. Several have taken place in France, where thieves cut off a crypto executive’s finger.

John Woeltz was arrested at the townhome, barefoot and in a white bathrobe, on Friday morning after Carturan’s dramatic escape that saw him run out of the townhouse bloodied and shoeless and hobble down the busy SoHo street

Woeltz’s associate William Duplessie (center) surrendered himself to the NYPD’s Major Case Squad Detectives unit on Tuesday morning

Woeltz’s glamorous Italian assistant Beatrice Folchi, 24, (pictured) was also taken into police custody, but later released. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has declined to prosecute pending further investigation

Mitigation

Experts suggest several ways to mitigate the threats of wrench attacks, including using wallets that require multiple approvals before any transactions.

Perhaps the most common way crypto-wealthy individuals try to prevent wrench attacks is by trying to stay anonymous. Using nicknames and cartoon avatars in social media accounts is common in the crypto community, even among top executives at popular companies.

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