Men accused of waterboarding a bitcoin millionaire for his password will ask on Wednesday to be freed on bail
Waterboarding, too?
Court documents reveal new details of the torture that prosecutors say a bitcoin millionaire from Italy suffered in May during a two-week kidnapping inside a $24 million luxury Manhattan townhouse.
The victim was not only pistol-whipped, set on fire, and attacked with a small chainsaw — he was also waterboarded, head butted, and hoisted up by his throat, all to get him to turn over his bitcoin password, prosecutors say in court papers.
The latest details may be discussed on Wednesday, when the two accused kidnappers, cryptocurrency investors William Duplessie, 37, of Miami, and John Woeltz, 37, of Kentucky, will ask a judge to free them on $1 million bail each with separate home confinement in the homes of their parents.
At their last court appearance, in June, the defendants' lawyers told New York Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro that the kidnapping-torture allegations are completely fabricated. (Carro is the same judge assigned to the state-level murder case of Luigi Mangione, accused in the December 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.)
The crypto-kidnapping victim, Michael Carturan, 28, was a business partner and friend to Duplessie and Woeltz, the lawyers said. They said Carturan was at the townhouse willingly, for what they described as a 17-day party.
There are videos of Carturan "smoking crack, having the time of his life, being involved in a sex orgy, being dragged around by a woman while he's naked inside the location" while wearing a BDSM collar, defense lawyer Sanford Talkin told the judge.
Talkin told the judge that Carturan is also seen on sidewalk surveillance video walking the neighborhood freely, including shopping for eyeglasses and taking a stroll with the dogwalker who cared for a dog living at the townhouse.
At any time, Carturan could have stopped a passerby and said, "I'm in trouble," but did not do so, said Wayne Gosnell, attorney for Duplessie.
"He was at church, he was at clubs, he was at dinners," Gosnell said.
Prosecutor Sarah Khan told a different story — with her own images backing it up.
"I would like to show the court a photograph that shows that the victim is lit on fire," she told the judge.
"So what are his injuries?" the judge asked.
The flames would be extinguished before he suffered burns, Khan answered.
"Our information is that the defendants would pour tequila in him, light him on fire, then put the fire out, sometimes by urinating on him," she said.
Caturan was bleeding from his head and face on May 23, when he ran barefoot from the house, desperate to find a police officer, prosecutors and police have said.
Khan said in court last month that Caturan was coerced into assuming "various poses" to make it look in photographs as if he was not being forcibly held.
"Victims of abuse are not always going to act in a way that we expect people to do," she told the judge.
She suggested that Caturan's grand jury testimony — which resulted in a ten-count indictment charging kidnapping, assault, and weapons possession — was harrowing.
"This is not, in fact, the first time that these defendants have engaged in conduct that constitutes similar crimes, meaning people being held against their will," Khan also told the judge last month.
"There are two other victims from two different occasions," she said, previewing arguments that may become more detailed at Wednesday's bail hearing.
Court documents also reveal new details of what police say they seized from the eight-bedroom, six-floor property, which was being rented for more than $30,000 a month.
The seized items include a loaded gun, two knives, two hacksaws, a chainsaw, zip ties, plastic buckets, and a cattle prod. The list also includes items described as "pants with burn" and "wooden paddle with signatures."
"I don't think there's anything crazy in here," Woeltz told the NYPD officers who arrested him at the townhouse shortly after Caturan fled.
Prosecutors said last month that they were still going through 30 cellphones and laptops seized from the home, along with 30 crypto "storage devices."
Khan said at last month's arraignment that so far, three recovered cellphones have revealed "additional evidence, including photos and messages that corroborate the intent here: Torture, humiliation, and control."
The two defendants say they will fight the charges. They face up to life in prison if convicted of the top kidnapping charge.
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