A second suspect accused of torturing a man to steal gain access to his cryptocurrency appeared in court on Friday after turning himself in.

William Duplessie, 32, was arraigned last week on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Duplessie and 37-year-old John Woeltz, who was arrested earlier in May, have been accused of imprisoning an Italian tourist inside Woeltz’s upscale Manhattan apartment and torturing him in an effort to force him to give up the password to a cryptocurrency wallet.

Tortured for weeks

The alleged victim, whom authorities have not named, told police he was hung over a staircase five storeys high, shocked with electrical wires, forced to smoke crack cocaine, attacked with a chainsaw, struck with a gun and had threats made against his family.

The two suspects are charged with kidnapping with intent to collect ransom, assault, unlawful imprisonment and other crimes.

The alleged victim, 28, told police he arrived in New York City from Italy on 6 May.

Upon arriving at the home of Woeltz, with whom he is said to have a previous relationship, he said Woeltz confiscated his passport and held him captive for 17 days.

On Friday, 23 May, the Italian national said he agreed to supply the crypto password.

When the to men went to get his laptop, he said he managed to escape the eight-bedroom townhouse in the upscale SoHo neighborhood, bloodied and shoeless.

Woeltz, a crypto investor from Kentucky, has been renting the property where the assaults allegedly occurred for between $30,000 (£22,300) and $40,000 per month, according to CBS News.

A search of the property found cocaine, a saw, chicken wire, body armour, night vision goggles, ammunition and Polaroid photos of the alleged victim with a gun pointed to his head, according to prosecutors.

Duplessie and Woeltz have both been denied bail, with prosecutors noting that Woeltz had means to flee including a private jet and a helicopter.

Physical attacks

Crypto tracing firm TRM Labs said in a recent analysis that there was a “disturbing trend” toward  people carrying out physical attacks in an effort to steal crypto funds.

In France, police have made a number of arrests after a string of kidnappings in which the criminals sought ransoms paid in cryptocurrencies.

In mid-May a woman and her child narrowly escaped being kidnapped from a street in Paris after her husband and a nearby shopkeeper helped fight the attackers.

The woman was identified as the daughter of Pierre Noizat, the chief executive and co-founder of French cryptocurrency firm Paymium.