By: Mario Mancini

The luxury of a $21 million SoHo townhouse became a house of horrors for Italian crypto investor Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, who was allegedly tortured for over two weeks in a terrifying extortion scheme — all in a bid to extract the password to his Bitcoin wallet.

As first reported by the New York Post, Carturan, 28, was held captive inside an opulent eight-bedroom residence on Prince Street, where he was subjected to a gruesome series of abuses. Real estate photos of the townhouse, now part of the investigation, reveal a dramatic multi-story spiral staircase — the very same one prosecutors say Carturan was dangled over during the ordeal.

Carturan, a crypto trader from Rivoli, Italy, with a reported net worth of $30 million, had flown to New York City on May 6 to confront a man he believed had stolen his Bitcoin. Instead, he ended up at the mercy of two alleged captors: John Woeltz, 37, a crypto entrepreneur from Kentucky reportedly worth $100 million, and William Duplessie, a businessman from Switzerland.

What followed, according to Manhattan prosecutors, was a 17-day nightmare of abuse and psychological torment. As first reported by the Post, Carturan was tied to a chair with electrical wire, shocked with a taser while standing in water, urinated on, drugged, and even cut on his limbs with a chainsaw. His passport was also allegedly destroyed to prevent escape.

Perhaps most disturbingly, authorities say the kidnappers staged photographs of Carturan — including one with a gun to his head and another of him being forced to smoke crack cocaine — as a means to pressure him into surrendering access to his crypto fortune.

The alleged abuse came to an end on May 23, when Carturan managed a daring escape. As first reported by the Post, he bolted from the townhouse barefoot and flagged down a traffic cop, setting off a full-scale investigation.

Security camera footage later confirmed his frantic dash down the street, visibly shaken and shoeless. Italian media outlets, including La Repubblica, report that Carturan has since been in contact with the Italian consulate in New York to replace his destroyed passport. His family, who runs a herbalist shop in Rivoli, has reportedly remained tight-lipped, coordinating quietly with Italy’s Foreign Ministry.

Before diving into the world of cryptocurrency, Carturan had studied psychology but left school early to pursue digital investing. According to Corriere della Sera, he traveled to New York with hopes of recovering his stolen assets — not realizing he was walking into a trap.

As first reported by the New York Post, prosecutors allege that Woeltz and Duplessie turned on Carturan almost immediately after meeting him. They not only threatened to kill him, but extended those threats to his family if he failed to give up his Bitcoin password.

Both men are now facing serious charges and are due in court on June 11.

This disturbing case highlights the dangers of high-stakes cryptocurrency dealings gone wrong — and the brutal lengths some are allegedly willing to go to in pursuit of digital riches.