Glamorous Italian assistant tied to $100m crypto bros’ ‘torture chamber’ at $75,000-a-month NYC mansion – where tourist ‘was held hostage for his Bitcoin account’

A glamorous Italian assistant has reportedly been arrested with a group of so-called crypto bros after a panicked tourist in New York told police he had escaped from captivity after being tortured for nearly three weeks for access to his Bitcoin account.

Beatrice Folchi, 24, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful imprisonment after a tourist from Turin claimed to have fled incarceration at a $75,000-per-month brownstone Soho mansion.

Folchi, an aspiring actress who lives in Connecticut, was seen being led out of the property on Saturday after cops first swooped on the property on Friday morning.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute pending further investigation, a spokesperson said, and Ms Folchi insisted she was not implicated in the crimes.

‘I’m not arrested,’ she told the New York Post outside her apartment in Chelsea, New York City, declining to comment further. ‘Everything is going to be told but with a lawyer – I can’t make any comments right now,’ she said.

Police raided the home after Italian tourist Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 28, flagged down an officer on Friday, bloodied and shoeless, claiming he had seized the opportunity to escape after being told it would be his ‘death day’.

He claimed he had been lured to the house by his former business associate, Kentucky-based crypto investor John Woeltz, with the promise of returning Bitcoin already extorted from him.

But when he arrived, he claims, he was chained up, electrocuted, pistol-whipped and threatened with a chainsaw in an effort to give up the passwords to his crypto accounts.

Folchi, according to her now-scrubbed LinkedIn profile, studied communication and philosophy at the University of Connecticut from 2017 to 2020

Officers raided the address and 37-year-old John Woeltz was arrested and dramatically dragged out of the building in a white bath robe. He is yet to respond to the accusations

Several wealthy ‘crypto bros’ living in a lavish Soho, New York City, brownstone allegedly lured a former business partner to the residence, where they kidnapped and tortured him over the course of several weeks (pictured: brownstone)

The alleged torture took place for weeks in the beautiful SoHo home. The apartment was most recently listed for $75,000 a month 

Police raided the Soho address after Mr Carturan claimed to have escaped the house where he said he had been held captive since May 6.

Believing he would soon be shot, the victim told his alleged captors he would give up his password.

Prosecutors said that when Mr Woeltz went to retrieve the victim’s laptop from another room, the victim fled down the stairs.

‘The victim was brought to the hospital, traumatized, with a laceration to his face, injury to his wrists consistent with being bound, and various other injuries to his head and body,’ prosecutors wrote in a bail application shared with The Washington Post. 

Mr Carturan had only recently arrived in Manhattan from Italy before his alleged capture.

Court records alleged that Mr Woeltz, known as the ‘the crypto king of Kentucky’ with an estimated worth of $100mn, had lured in Mr Carturan with the promise of returning Bitcoin that Mr Woeltz had already extorted from him.

Mr Woeltz and a male ‘accomplice’ allegedly threatened to kill the alleged victim’s family unless he provided passwords to accounts holding Bitcoin, records claim.

Mr Woeltz was dragged out of the building in a white bath robe on Friday morning.

He was charged on Saturday with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. 

Prosecutors have deemed him a flight risk as he owns a private jet and a helicopter. He is being held without bail. 

Police have arrested a group of so-called ‘crypto bros’ in connection with the case, accused of binding the alleged victim with electrical cords and using other forms of shock torture to get him to share his passwords.

Mr Woeltz allegedly snatched the alleged victim’s electronic devices as he arrived and demanded he give up his crypto password to an account holding Bitcoin.

Beatrice Folchi, 24, with a background in marketing for Rolls-Royce, was taken into custody on Friday at the $75,000-a-month SoHo townhouse

The alleged torture occurred in this massive luxury townhouse in SoHo, a posh New York City neighborhood

The gang were alleged to have pistol-whipped Mr Carturan and threatened to sever off his limbs with an electric chainsaw before he pretended to concede his passwords.

At one point, they were said to have ‘carried the victim to the top flight of stairs of the apartment in the compound and hung the victim over the ledge, after threatening to kill the victim if [he] did not provide the defendant with the victim’s Bitcoin password’. 

Police said the men took Polaroid photographs of themselves torturing him – one showing him bound to a chair with a gun pressed to his head.

The photos, authorities believe, were likely intended to extort money from either the alleged victim or his family back in Italy. 

The men also reportedly forced him into taking drugs – including crack cocaine – and imposed mental torment upon him, repeatedly insisting he would never escape.

Prosecutors also allege that he was urinated on during the ordeal, and that his captors slashed his leg.

Sources told the New York Post that he was fitted with an Apple AirTag to track his movements, but made a daring escape on Friday when their backs were turned.

He fled the Soho townhouse just after 9.30am on Friday and found safety in a traffic agent nearby.

Police then raided the house and found broken glass, helmets, night vision goggles and a bullet proof vest strewn across the apartment.

Authorities also discovered a firearm, prompting them to request a search warrant for a more thorough investigation of the property.

Mr Woeltz, described by police as the renting occupant of the apartment, was found in an upstairs bathroom.

He was arrested and is currently being held with charges pending.

Folchi, an Italian-born marketing manager and small-time actress, was reportedly working as Woeltz’s assistant at the time of the alleged crimes

John Woeltz, 37, pictured with police after his shocking arrest on charges of assault, kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, and criminal possession of a firearm 

Woeltz and others in the apartment allegedly chained up the tourist, taunted him with a chainsaw, and forced him to do cocaine 

Woeltz is accused of luring the Italian tourist to New York and torturing him in the SoHo apartment for weeks 

Folchi, an Italian-born marketing manager and small-time actress, was reportedly working as Woeltz’s assistant at the time of the alleged crimes. 

Her professional bio claimed she had experience working with high-end brands like Puma, Manchester City, Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

Meanwhile, her IMDB and Backstage pages detail minor roles in short films, including a 2021 indie titled Butterfly Wings. Her social media is now mostly locked down.

Friends from the Connecticut suburbs where her family once lived told reporters her parents had recently rented out their home and returned to Italy.

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