A second suspect in the kidnapping and torture of an Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment in a failed bid to get him to give up his cryptocurrency password was criminally charged Tuesday after turning himself in to authorities — and was later ordered held without bail for the horrific three-week ordeal.
William Duplessie, 33, surrendered at 7:45 a.m. to cops at the 13th Precinct stationhouse and was charged with assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment and possession of a firearm.
Sporting a white long-sleeved Ralph Lauren polo shirt and a blank expression on his face, the cryptocurrency investor said nothing as he was taken out of the stationhouse and marched to an awaiting squad car.
Duplessie was ordered held without bail at his arraignment at Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday evening.
“The defendant and the separately charged defendant bonded him by the wrists and proceeded to torture the victim over the course of three weeks, including subjecting him to meetings, including, but not limited to using electric wire to shock him, pointing the firearm at his head several times and using it to hit him on the head,” Assistant District Attorney Amanda Blott charged. “While at times, the victim was not bound, he was repeatedly told by the defendant and the separately charged defendant that they would kill his family and that they would harm the victim if he left.”
Duplessie’s lawyer, Sanford Talkin, asked for a $1 million bond and home detention with the defendant’s father in Florida, suggesting an ankle bracelet and supervised by a private security firm — noting Duplessie “turned himself in.”
“The district attorney cited many facts, just about all of which are highly disputed, but just all about all of which have nothing to do with whether or not you come back to court or not, except for one that they’ve glossed over,” Talkin said. “And that’s that he turned himself in. So it’s not the words of the lawyers that tell you that he’s not at risk of flight. He demonstrated with his actions that he was not at risk of flight because if he was, he would not be here right now.”
Duplessie’s father, who was at the arraignment, waved to him from the audience as he watched his son being led out in handcuffs.
His next court date is May 30.
Police believe Duplessie helped cryptocurrency trader John Woeltz, 37, allegedly imprison and torture the 28-year-old victim for 17 days. Duplessie has a primary residence in Miami, according to cops.
Duplessie, his brother Stephen and his father James started a blockchain company called Pangea Fund, according to a 2023 story in Bankless Times, a cryptocurrency news website. William Duplessie had been working for the fund for seven years when the story was published.
In an interview posted to YouTube seven years ago, Duplessie said he had been trained in the stock market from age 11.
The victim came to the U.S. to visit Woeltz’s chic townhouse on Prince and Mulberry Sts.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the arrest during an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York.”
“We do have someone we were looking for in custody as of this morning,” Tisch said.
Curtis Means/POOL
John Woeltz is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 24. (Curtis Means/POOL)
Tisch refuted reports that Duplessie surrendered after partying in the Hamptons over Memorial Day Weekend.
“We have no indication that the man who turned himself in was in the Hamptons,” she said.
Woeltz’s mother claimed to the Daily News that Duplessie was the ringleader of the kidnapping plot and had “infiltrated” her son’s life.
Once the two men met, “we could never speak to John anymore without [him] being there,” Joan Woeltz said after her son’s arrest. “And John started being kind of isolated from us.”
“We’ve been concerned about this person entering his life and kind of controlling it,” she added. “Me and my family have been concerned for some time for John’s well being and what influence he was under with these people.”
Woeltz was arrested Friday shortly after the victim managed to escape and flag down a traffic enforcement agent, who contacted police. Dressed in a plush robe, Woeltz was hauled down to the 13th Precinct stationhouse barefoot, where he was charged with assault and kidnapping. He was ordered held without bail following his arraignment Saturday.
As soon as their victim arrived at the townhouse, Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly took his passport and electronics and told him he couldn’t leave, police said.
The two bound their victim’s wrists and over the next three weeks subjected him to “beatings including but not limited to the use of electric wires to shock him, using a firearm to hit him on the head, and pointing the firearm at his head on several occasions,” prosecutors said at Woeltz’s arraignment Saturday. “[They] used a saw to cut his leg, urinated on the victim, forced him to smoke crack cocaine by holding him down and forcing it into his mouth.”
The duo also “tied an airtag around his neck with a chain or wire,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Michael Mattson said. “They [said they] would kill his family, and they would find the victim if he left.”
After apprehending Woeltz, cops found disturbing Polaroid photos of him and his accomplice torturing their victim and holding a gun to his head.
Some time during the victim’s capture, Woeltz and his accomplice managed to get printed T-shirts of the victim smoking crack. The shirts were found in the home, along with body armor, night vision goggles, ammunition and ballistic helmets, officials said.
On Friday morning, Woeltz “carried the victim to the top flight of stairs in the townhouse and hung the victim over the ledge as the defendant threatened to kill the victim if the victim would not provide the defendant with the victim’s bitcoin password,” Mattson said.
After being pistol-whipped once again, the victim finally consented but said he needed a laptop to retrieve the password, the prosecutor said.
“When the defendant left the victim to retrieve the victim’s laptop, the victim was able to escape down the stairs,” Mattson said. “The victim was bloodied and had no shoes on.”
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated and released. There is no indication that Duplessie was in the townhouse Friday.
Woeltz is facing 15 years to life if convicted. He has been featured as a speaker at several cryptocurrency conferences and has “nearly a decade of experience with technology startups in Silicon Valley,” according to online profiles.
Joan Woeltz said her son was an early believer of cryptocurrency and “had been mining Bitcoin from the age of 12.”
Originally Published: May 27, 2025 at 8:51 AM EDT
