NYPD officers ensnared in Bitcoin investor torture case

Two New York Police Department officers could find themselves in hot water over potential connections to a shocking case of torture in the stately SoHo district of Manhattan. 

The NYPD confirmed to Fox News Digital that its officers “were modified” and “the matter is under internal review.”

The issue involves two detectives, one of whom reportedly served on Mayor Eric Adams’ security detail, the New York Post reported.

The case at the heart of the scandal is tied to two men who allegedly tortured an Italian cryptocurrency millionaire in a New York City townhouse. 

CRYPTO INVESTOR ACCUSED OF SADISTICALLY TORTURING BIZ PARTNER IN NYC LUXURY TOWNHOUSE

One detective is suspected of driving the alleged victim, a 22-year-old Italian Bitcoin millionaire, from the airport to the townhouse where the savagery occurred on the day he arrived in New York, according to the Post. The other is accused of working with the man’s alleged captors, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, in an “unauthorized capacity.”

Woeltz, 37, and Duplessie, 33, are accused of kidnapping the man, a former business partner, on May 6 and torturing him when he refused to reveal his Bitcoin password. A criminal complaint obtained by Fox News says the brutality lasted for nearly three weeks. 

John Woeltz was arrested at his SoHo townhouse.  (WNYW)

The pair allegedly shocked the man with electric wires, bashed his head with a firearm, pointed a firearm at his head and threatened to kill him and his family, and hung him over a second-floor ledge. 

Eventually, the man escaped the residence and flagged down a traffic cop.

John Woeltz and William Duplessie have been charged with kidnapping after police say an Italian tourist was allegedly held hostage and tortured for his crypto account information inside a SoHo townhouse. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Both suspects have now been charged with assault, kidnapping in the first degree, unlawful imprisonment in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm. 

2ND SUSPECT DETAINED AFTER CRYPTO INVESTOR ACCUSED OF TORTURING BUSINESS PARTNER IN NYC

William Duplessie is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s 13th Precinct stationhouse in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News via Getty Images)

Woeltz was arrested last Friday, just after the man escaped. Duplessie turned himself in on Tuesday. 

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The latter reportedly appeared in front of a judge in a Manhattan courtroom Friday, waiting to be officially indicted. He is being held without bail. 

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan and Greg Norman contributed to this report.