The moment a Bitcoin trader finally escaped his alleged crypto hellscape was caught on surveillance — and the footage is just as dramatic as it sounds.
#BREAKING: 2nd suspect surrenders in NYC ‘crypto king’ townhouse torture case, @MarcSantia4NY reports https://t.co/SyQVasO8lB
— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) May 27, 2025
@NBCNewYork
In video obtained by NBC New York, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan can be seen in a casual top and shorts, sprinting barefoot up to an NYPD traffic cop Friday afternoon … clearly distressed, clearly desperate, and looking like he just lived through a straight-up nightmare.
DECEMBER 2017
Facebook/Tai Lopez
Cops say Carturan was allegedly held captive for nearly 3 weeks inside a SoHo townhouse by two ex-business partners, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, who allegedly shocked him with wires, pistol-whipped him, dangled him over a ledge, and even allegedly urinated on him — all while trying to force him to cough up the password to his crypto fortune.
TMZ.com
Carturan made it out with only minor injuries and flagged down a traffic cop — which is seen in the clip.
Woeltz, the first suspect who was nabbed after the escape, was pulled barefoot and in a robe from the luxury townhouse on Friday and hit with a stack of felony charges, including kidnapping, assault, and weapons possession. He’s due in court May 28.
TMZ.com
As for Duplessie — he turned himself in to the NYPD Major Crimes Unit on Tuesday, and hours later, got the full perp-walk treatment outside the station … stone-faced and silent as cameras rolled.
