The attacker kept the victim in the mansion, pumped up drugs and shook his current to force the password from the cryptocurrency. The victim managed to escape, and the kidnapper was arrested.
Crypto -investor John Veltz was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man and keeping him locked up for several weeks in an elite apartment in Manhattan, CNN reports. Torture and threats, he and his accomplices tried to find out a password from Bitcoin-Koshelka from a visiting Italian, but the victim managed to escape.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the victim, the 28-year-old Italian, came to New York in early May and was stolen on the 6th. He said that he was tied, pumped with drugs, shocked, hit the head with firearms and at some point hung over the stairs, threatening to kill if he did not open the password.
On May 23, the abducted agreed to give the password, saying that he was stored on a laptop in another room. When the attacker turned away, the Italian escaped from the mansion and turned to the policeman on the street for help. He was later taken to the hospital, where they confirmed that the nature of his wounds corresponds to his story.
In the evening of the same day, Veltz was arrested, details about his accomplices are not reported. According to the prosecutor, the search in the mansion revealed a lot of evidence, including cocaine, saw, prickly wire, body armor, night vision glasses, ammunition and polarid photographs of the Italian with a pistol directed to him.
The Valatz was charged with abduction, attack, illegal deprivation of liberty and illegal storage of firearms. He was arrested without the right to exemption on bail, because, according to prosecutors, he has funds for escape, including a private plane and a helicopter. In the coming days, he will appear in court in Manhattan.
A week earlier, a tourist from the United States announced a loss of more than $ 120 thousand in cryptocurrency after he was abducted and robbed by a fake Uber driver in the center of London. The American said that he was pumped up with drugs, after which he gave out a password from a cryptocurrent and was without a phone in an unfamiliar area.
Experts note that an increase in the number of abductions of the owners of cryptocurrencies or their relatives with the aim of extortion may be due to the fact that a physical attack becomes easier than hacking cyber protection. Since the beginning of 2025, at least 25 such cases have occurred.
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Source: Cryptocurrency
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