One of the crypto bros who allegedly tortured an Italian tourist while partaking in drug-fueled binges in an expensive SoHo townhouse is set to be freed on bail.
William Duplessie, 33, will be free as early as tomorrow after securing a $250,000 bail package with his family putting up the collateral, according to sources cited by the New York Post.
Duplessie’s bond was approved on Wednesday afternoon by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro, according to the outlet.
Authorities claimed Duplessie and John Woeltz, 37, coerced Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, 29, to go to their eight–bedroom townhouse worth up to $75,000 a month last May 6 in order to steal his Bitcoin fortune, authorities said.
Carturan told police he was bound by the wrists, shocked with electrical wires, pistol–whipped, cut on the leg with a saw and forced to smoke from a crack pipe over the next 17 days.
The Italian tourist said he eventually agreed to give the two men access to the password because he thought they would kill him.
When Duplessie and Woeltz went downstairs went to get Carturan's computer, he escaped from the Prince Street residence.
After being arrested, Duplessie and Woeltz both pleaded not guilty to first-degree kidnapping, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and assault.
Duplessie's bond had originally been set at $1 million, like Woeltz's, but it was reduced to $250,000 last month, per court records.
He will have to wear an ankle bracelet and be monitored while he is free.
'We are grateful that he will be released in the near future and look forward to his unencumbered participation in the defense of this case,' Sam Talkin, Duplessie's lawyer, told the outlet.
Carturan and Woeltz had previously fallen out over money and the former had even left the country for Italy before he was convinced to return to New York, according to a police report cited by The New York Times.
At one point during the alleged abuse, Carturan said he was dangled from the home's top flight of stairs.
After escaping, a barefoot Carturan then desperately flagged down a traffic agent on the street, bringing his alleged kidnapping to light.
A search of the Manhattan townhouse found cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armor, night vision goggles and ammunition.
There were also Polaroid photos of Carturan with a gun pointed to his head and a crack pipe in his mouth.
Carturan was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries on his face, body, head and wrists, consistent with being bound.
Woeltz was arrested on May 23 at his apartment.
He was released on house arrest last July when his father, Matthew Van Woeltz, put his home on the line and his mother Joan covered his $1 million bond.
The crypto powerhouse had not been allowed to pay his bail with cryptocurrency.
Duplessie turned himself in at the New York Police Department's 13th Precinct on May 27.
'Yes, sir. Can I have a cigarette?' Duplessie allegedly asked a detective that morning, per The New York Post.
He did not say anything else to law enforcement after that, according to court files cited by the outlet.
Defense attorneys have argued that Duplessie and Woeltz's alleged abuse was part of a 'fraternity–like hazing,' according to Courthouse News.
Wayne Gosnell Jr., Woeltz's attorney, claimed that Carturan was a resident at the luxurious townhouse, which he said 'was like a long–running frat party.'
'He wasn't kidnapped,' Gosnell Jr. told the court. 'The truth is he was free to leave whenever he wanted.'
He added: 'It is a frat house with essentially unlimited funds.'
Duplessie's attorney, Talkin, claimed that Carturan 'wanted to be part of the lifestyle,' which reportedly included drug–fueled orgies.
The defense has accused Carturan of being 'all smiles' during the alleged abuse and claimed that the actions inside the Soho home were 'very, very consensual.'
'Could some of the hazing have gone over the line? Maybe, but that's a trial issue,' Gosnell said.
Woeltz started renting the multimillion–dollar townhouse last March 17, paying his landlord between $75,000 and $95,000 per month to reside there, insiders told TMZ.
He and Duplessie hosted extravagant parties at the residence, offering guests drugs, alcohol and food from lavish city hotspots like Blue Ribbon Sushi, Nobu and Cipriani's, per the outlet.
Photographs from inside the six–story property showed a kitchen littered with cocaine, empty top shelf liquor bottles, mixers, disposable vapes and empty take–out containers.
The crypto bros frequented The Box, an exclusive erotic nightclub in Nolita, reportedly spending more than $100,000 during a night out and then bringing women back to their townhouse afterwards.
Woeltz and Duplessie would visit the establishment between two and four days in a row, with sources telling TMZ that Duplessie would always be shirtless because he 'wanted to act like the man' and 'thought he was in the mafia'.
Duplessie would reportedly justify his attire by claiming that people 'wouldn't take him seriously' if he wore a shirt. He was also known to smoke American Spirit cigarettes and drink both Don Julio tequila and champagne straight from the bottle.
Assistant District Attorney Sarah Khan shot back that the case represented a 'pattern of control and violence.'
Khan said Carturan's reactions in the described videos were 'not normal' and 'bizarre.'
'It appears that this is the use of intermittent violence to keep the victim unregulated, and so his reaction to smile, to laugh, is to … appease the defendants,' she said.
Carturan 'played along' because Duplessie and Woeltz had told him 'not to show fear, to be a man,' she claimed.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Sanford, Duplessie's attorney, and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for comment.