He Was Urinated On, Cut with a Saw and Forced to Smoke Crack: What Police Say Happened to Tourist Lured to N.Y.C. — and Why

A second cryptocurrency investor has been arrested and charged in connection with the alleged weeks-long torture of an Italian tourist in an upscale Manhattan apartment, according to reports.

William Duplessie was taken into custody on Tuesday in New York City and charged with kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon, according to The Associated Press, The New York Times, and NBC 4.

The 32-year-old cryptocurrency investor surrendered to police after his alleged co-conspirator and fellow cryptocurrency investor John Woeltz was taken into custody last Friday —after their alleged victim, a 28-year-old Italian tourist, reportedly escaped from the Manhattan apartment and ran to the nearest police officer he could find outside.

PEOPLE previously reported that Woeltz, 37, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one charge each of kidnapping, imprisonment and criminal possession of a firearm.

The New York Police Department said in a statement to PEOPLE that the two cryptocurrency investors are alleged to have been holding the Italian man captive in a Manhattan apartment while torturing him over the course of two weeks in an effort to get him to give up the password to his Bitcoin account. The AP and NBC 4 reported that the victim was known to the two suspects, and described their relationship as a business partnership gone sour.

A spokesperson with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Woeltz’s attorney, Wayne Gosnell, have not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether Duplessie had an attorney representing him.

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Over the course of two weeks, Woeltz and Duplessie allegedly tortured their victim in a number of ways, according to the AP and NBC 4, including bounding him by the wrists, shocking him with electrical wires, cutting his leg with a saw, urinating on him, and pistol-whipping him. On one occasion, the man reportedly told police his kidnappers dangled him by the feet from the eight-bedroom, six-story apartment’s top flight of stairs. On another occasion, the victim reportedly told police he was forced to smoke out of a crack pipe.

New York City Police said in a statement over the weekend that the victim alleged he had been “routinely assaulted during his captivity” before finally agreeing to give up his password last Friday morning. When the two men went to get his laptop, the victim was allegedly able to escape and run out of the apartment. According to the AP, the victim, who has not been identified, ran up to a traffic guard outside of the apartment and told him what happened, leading to a police response.

NBC 4 reported that a video taken by a bystander showed the victim was “disheveled and shoeless” when he approached the traffic cop, begging for help.

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“The motive was over money, they knew each other. But under no circumstance in this world you have the right to kidnap somebody,” NYPD Chief of Department John Chell said, according to NBC 4. 

Investigators found a Polaroid the suspects allegedly took, which appear to show the victim being tortured, The AP also reported. Police also discovered cocaine, chicken wire, a saw, body armor, and ammunition inside the Manhattan townhome from where the victim allegedly escaped, which Woeltz was renting.