A man suspected of helping to kidnap and torture an Italian cryptocurrency investor in a townhouse in Manhattan went to New York police.
William Duplessie went on Tuesday after what the officials described as days of negotiations with the authorities, reports the New York Times.
He is the third suspect in an alleged conspiracy to extract the keys from a Bitcoin portfolio belonging to Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, a Crypto fund partner who said he was selected captive and abused for almost three weeks.
The event started on May 6, when Carturan arrived in a townhouse in 17 rooms on Prince Street in the Manhattan district of Nolita. He had to reconnect with former fundraising John Woeltz, who, with another Beatrice Folchi partner, would have embedded him.
The police said that the group had tried to force Carturan to abandon access to its cryptographic participation, worth millions of people, by physical threats and psychological abuses.
According to the police, Carturan was attacked, suspended on the top floor of the five -story building and held under the threat of a firearm. He managed to escape and alert the authorities almost three weeks later.
The New York Police Service case has drawn attention to its brutality and connection to an increasing tendency of physical attacks against crypto users.
In France, the daughter and grandson of the CEO of Paymium, Pierre Noizat, were recently targeted in a failed abduction attempt captured on video. Earlier in the same city, the father of a crypto millionaire was removed and cut a finger before being rescued.
Another incident saw David Balland, co-founder of Hardware Wallet Maker Ledger, and his wife kidnapped their home. The authorities then saved the couple and seized the payment of the ransom.
While Folchi has since been released and his lawsuits have been postponed, Woeltz is expected to appear on Wednesday in court. Woeltz and Duplessie face accusations of kidnapping, assault and illegal possession of firearms.
A lawyer representative Woeltz did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
