Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan was enjoying the fruits of his highly lucrative investments in cryptocurrency by renting a posh New York townhouse for $40, 000 per month. However, his 17-bedroom Manhattan home was converted into a torture chamber, where he spent 17 days being held by kidnappers.
In an effort to break into Carturan’s Bitcoin wallet, which allegedly contained some $ 28 million worth of cryptocurrency, John Woeltz and William Duplessie, Carturan’s captors, who wanted access to his cryptocurrency accounts, used brutal tactics. They threatened him with a chainsaw, shocked him with electrical wires, and hung him from the roof of the building, among other torture measures.
They forced him to use crack cocaine when everything else failed. In the end, they failed. Carturan escaped the townhouse after more than two exhausting weeks, and Woeltz and Duplessie were later detained and charged with kidnapping and assault.
One of the most recent “wrench attacks,” including what are known as “crypto kidnappings,” that combine high-tech cybertheft with traditional thuggery, was Carturan’s ordeal, which was one of the most recent. They have been occurring in a number of nations around the world.
Have there been any other crypto kidnapping arrests made elsewhere?
Yes . According to French prosecutors, on May 31 a top figure in France’s cryptocurrency industry was attempted to be kidnapped by 26 people.
The police’s investigation into the “attempted kidnapping by an organized gang” of Paymium’s daughter and grandson on May 13 and “other unsuccessful plans,” including a failed attempt on the same targets the day before, and another attempt on June 2 near the western city of Nantes culminated in this investigation.
In connection with the Paris attack, the Paris public prosecutor’s office reported that “eighteen people have been placed in pre-trial detention, three have requested a deferred hearing, and four have been placed under judicial supervision.” The suspects range in age from 16 to 23.
In recent months, France has been the target of numerous attacks on well-known crypto entrepreneurs. However, kidnappings involving crypto-linked activities have also taken place in other nations.
Where else have people been kidnapped using crypto?
In central France in January, a group of criminals abducted David Balland, cofounder of the cryptocurrency firm Ledger, and his wife in addition to the recent attempted kidnappings in Paris.
The kidnappers sent Ledger a video of the mutilation in a particularly gruesome turn of events: they cut off one of Balland’s fingers. However, the French gendarmerie released both victims within two days.
In that case, nine suspects are the subject of a criminal investigation.
The wife of Stephane Winkel, a crypto investor and influencer, was kidnapped from the couple’s Belgian residence in December 2024. After her kidnapper allegedly crashed his car during a dramatic police chase, she was saved.
High-profile kidnappings of crypto executives and traders have also occurred in Canada and Australia, where they were forced to pay ransoms worth between $40, 000 and $1 million in digital assets.
The recent spate of crypto kidnappings is not yet clear about any connection.
Describe cryptocurrency.
The very first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin, which was introduced in January 2009 and started trading. People can use alternative payment methods and central banks thanks to this type of money exchange. With hundreds of millions of users worldwide, it is now a functioning, decentralized financial system.
In 2009, a transaction involving Bitcoin, valued at $ 0.004 per Bitcoin, was made. Bitcoin’s price ended yesterday at nearly $ 101, 576 per bitcoin, or nearly $ 2.5 trillion more than it was in 2009.
Internet libertarians, who believed that money should be free from government interference, initially favored the use of the digital currency. The price has quickly increased, and it quickly gained more mainstream acceptance.
Donald Trump, president of the United States, recently announced plans to mint a number of cryptocurrencies, making them eligible for a “Crypto Strategic Reserve,” increasing their value even more.
Although cryptocurrency thefts are not new, they have always involved hacking digital accounts that have large amounts of the currency. For instance, online thieves stole $ 570 million from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, in 2022, according to estimates.
However, as Bitcoin and other digital assets’ value rises, criminals are shifting their focus from online hacking to actual-world extortion, through kidnappings and torture.
How do criminals use cryptocurrencies to target victims of kidnappings?
Victims are not difficult to locate.
Some crypto tycoons, many of whom are young men, regularly show off their wealth on social media or at conferences to make it easier for thieves to find targets.
Despite the 2016 Kim Kardashian kidnapping incident, many people have continued to flaunt their wealth. The US reality TV star was robbed of millions of dollars worth of jewelry in her hotel room in Paris. The men, who were later caught and given prison sentences, were later referred to as the “grandpa robbers” due to their ages.
There is little to distinguish them from the fabulously wealthy like the Kardashians, despite the fact that that was not a crypto attack.
However, large crypto-asset holders who are more cautious about displaying their wealth on social media and in public have been exposed to criminal activity as a result of data breaches at cryptocurrency exchanges.
In May 2025, Coinbase Global reported that hackers had managed to extort thousands of customers’ personal information, including the addresses of almost 70, 000 of them in the previous few months, putting them at risk of being attacked or extorted.
Criminals have also bribed insiders at crypto exchanges for customer data, besides hacking crypto millionaires’ accounts for this kind of information. Then, using this information, kidnappings or home invasions can be conducted against the highest-value targets.
Why are there more and more crypto kidnappings?
Kidnapping is one method of obtaining money from a digital wallet as opposed to a traditional bank account.
Since there is no third-party financial institution to safeguard the funds held in a digital wallet, hackers simply need to gain access to a cryptocurrency account password.
Transactions on an open-ledger blockchain, the system that makes cryptocurrencies possible, are also permanent, meaning they are irreversible.
Additionally, thieves don’t need to bring the stolen cryptocurrency with them, unlike they do with cash, jewelry, and gold. Money can be moved from one account to another in just a few clicks.
Additionally, cryptocurrency is much easier to launder because it can do so without traditional law enforcement, making it a popular choice for online drug dealers.
Therefore, criminals have a greater opportunity to gain immediate access to vast wealth if they can force a victim to give up their account, leading to an increase in physical attacks and kidnappings.
Can you protect yourself from a crypto kidnapping?
Yes, that’s possible. According to a report from NBC News, at least three insurance providers that offer services to cryptocurrency investors are developing kidnap and ransom (K&, R) policies specifically for abductions.
Fear of violence was a central topic at this year’s Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference, according to Becca Rubenfeld, chief operating officer of AnchorWatch, a crypto insurance company that plans to launch K&, R protection later this year.
They are tense, Rubenfeld told NBC, “They’re]cryptocurrency holders are. “I’m not saying that because I’m trying to sell insurance,” he said, “but overall, the mood is very good for me.”
Ransom insurance and kidnapping are not typical topics for prominent corporate executives.
What other security measures do crypto investors take?
Security experts are also advising investors to avoid sharing information about their crypto holdings with friends online and to use pseudonyms and updated digital wallet addresses for each transaction.
Source: Aljazeera
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