Two New York City Police Department detectives have reportedly been put on modified duty as authorities investigate their potential ties to a case in which two cryptocurrency investors are accused of kidnapping and torturing an Italian national in a luxury Manhattan townhouse to access his Bitcoin.
The officers are Roberto Cordero, a member of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s security detail, and Raymond J. Low, The New York Times reports, citing unnamed officials and an internal document.
Cordero allegedly picked up the victim from the airport, according to the newspaper.
He also provided security outside the Prince Street townhouse where the alleged torture took place, NBC New York reports.
“Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty,” said a City Hall statement issued to the Times. “We are disturbed by these allegations, and as soon as it came to our attention, the officers were placed on modified duty. The investigation is ongoing.”
It’s unknown if the detectives were aware of the alleged crime taking place at the Manhattan townhouse.
The NYPD has acknowledged that two officers were placed on modified duty amid a continuing internal review.
The Independent has contacted the department for further comment.
The reports emerged the same day a grand jury indicted one of the alleged torturers, John Woeltz, 37, an investor known as the “crypto king” of Kentucky.
Woeltz was denied bail and is set to be arraigned on June 11.
Woeltz’s alleged accomplice, William Duplessie, was arrested Tuesday and is awaiting indictment.
The men are accused of luring Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan to the house on May 6 and holding him captive for 17 days, torturing him with pistol-whippings, using a chainsaw on his leg, shocking him and dangling him from a building.
The captive was allegedly able to escape by giving up his Bitcoin password last week, then fleeing into the street, where police said they found him bloodied and shoeless.
Suspect Woeltz has “every intention to fight this case,” his attorney Wayne Gosnell said in court.
Police say the alleged kidnappers knew the victim.
