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Crypto investor allegedly tortured captive Italian businessman with a chainsaw for weeks in luxe NYC pad in sadistic scheme to gain password: sources

A cryptocurrency investor from Kentucky is suspected of torturing an Italian businessman with a chainsaw in a sadistic, weeks-long extortion attempt to gain the password for his accounts at a ritzy Manhattan apartment – before the captive made a daring escape, police sources said.

John Woeltz, 37, was arrested after the bloodied and bruised businessman – a 28 year-old man – broke out of the SoHo house of horrors Friday morning, ran to a police officer and said he’d been held prisoner for more than two weeks, the sources said.

Cops rushed to the luxurious Prince Street pad – which Woeltz was allegedly renting for roughly $30,000 to $40,000 a month – and discovered multiple Polaroid photos showing the businessman being tied up with electrical wire and tortured, including one of him bound to a chair with a gun pointed at his head, according to the sources.

Since being taken captive, the businessman had been bound with an electric cord, Tased while his feet were put in water, pistol-whipped, forced to take cocaine and threatened to have his limbs cut off with an electric chainsaw, the sources said.

The nightmare erupted from a dispute over cryptocurrency, in which the suspect allegedly tried to extort millions of dollars from the man by unleashing a litany of horrific tortures, according to sources.

The man was rushed to Bellevue Hospital for treatment, while cops arrested Woeltz, who was expected to face an assault charge, the sources said.

Woeltz was charged Friday night with two counts of second-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree, first degree unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon.

A second person — 24-year-old Beatrice Folchi of Manhattan — was also arrested and charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree unlawful imprisonment.

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Closer To Peace? Watch Russian Ballistic Missile Destroy US Patriot System In Ukraine

There’s been little progress in Russia-Ukraine talks, which the Trump administration has backed – the latest held in Istanbul a week ago – and by all appearances the war continues to heat up and possibly expand.

Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) has published battlefield footage which purports to show a Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system destroying a US-supplied Patriot air defense system operated by the Ukrainian military.

A Thursday Telegram post by the MoD showed the strike on a position in Dnepropetrovsk region, which it says destroyed a multifunctional AN/MPQ-65 radar, a control unit, as well as two Patriot launchers.

Russian state media has touted that this amounts to a loss of advanced military hardware worth over $1 billion. President Zelensky has already for months been complaining US-supplied air defense systems

European allies, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain – have long worked to donate and transfer the anti-air system with Washington’s approval.

Greece has continued to refuse to send Ukraine any of its Patriot batteries, citing the need to defend its homeland, also given Turkey is an ever-present threat amid a spat over maritime rights and sovereignty. Likely Greece also realizes any Patriot it donates could just as quickly be destroyed by Russia’s superior aerial power.

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Hillary Clinton Calls on Liberals to Ruin Memorial Day Gatherings by Bashing Trump to “Friends, Neighbors, Cookout Attendees”

“Boy, this burger is great, Roy! What’s your secret?”

“Tom, don’t you know Hillary Clinton says Trump’s new budget is going to increase food insecurity?”

“*&%$ it Roy! I just wanted to enjoy Memorial Day with friends. Shove your burger! C’mon Betty, we’re leaving!”

Rather than honoring the military men and women who gave their lives defending their fellow Americans’ right to live in freedom, two-time failed Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is calling on her supporters to bash President Donald Trump and his One Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House this week when they get together with friends and neighbors at Memorial Day gatherings this weekend:

I’m giving you a mission for this Memorial Day holiday weekend.

I want you to talk to two people—friends, neighbors, cookout attendees—about why Trump’s proposed budget would be a disaster for American kids.

We owe the next generation every chance, and this isn’t it.

How the Trump budget bill would impact kids. (It would be a disaster.)

* Drastically cut health care. 15 million Americans, including millions of children, could lose access through Medicaid cuts and ACA marketplace changes.
* Increase food insecurity. Nearly 11 million people—including 4 million kids—could lose SNAP food assistance.
* Make families poorer. The bill would kick 4.5 million American kids off the child tax credit.
* Leave AI dangers unchecked. The bill would freeze state-level AI regulation for 10 years, stripping states of the ability to protect kids from deep fakes, exploitation, and more.

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Armenian Crime Rings Charged With Attempted Murder, $83 Million Amazon Cargo Theft

Federal authorities on Tuesday arrested 13 alleged members of rival Armenian crime organizations locked in an apparent power struggle in Los Angeles County.

The charges include attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession, bank and wire fraud, and cargo theft totaling more than $80 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

Among the defendants are Ara Artuni, 41, of Los Angeles, who is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, who is charged with kidnapping.

Authorities say both men were leaders of rival Armenian organized crime syndicates, referred to as “avtoritet,” which is Russian for “authority,” and that they have been engaged in a violent feud to maintain control of the San Fernando Valley since 2022.

Artuni is charged with ordering the attempted murder of Amiryan during the summer of 2023. In retaliation, Amiryan allegedly conspired with members of his own criminal organization to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.

In addition to attempted murder, authorities say Artuni and his criminal enterprise committed bank fraud, wire fraud and cargo theft.

Artuni and his organization allegedly targeted e-commerce giant Amazon by enrolling as carriers for the online retailer. Artuni and his men would contract trucking routes with Amazon, and while transporting the goods, diverge from the route and steal all or part of the shipments. 

The Artuni enterprise allegedly stole more than $83 million from Amazon, according to estimates provided by the company. 

“This transnational criminal organization operated with the structure and brutality of an international cartel, inflicting significant harm on public safety and causing substantial damage to legitimate commerce and supply chains,” Dwayne Angebrandts, Homeland Security Investigation’s Los Angeles acting deputy special agent in charge, said in a statement. 

Artuni’s organization also reportedly ran a “credit card bust-out” scheme in which it charged credit cards to a fake business and then “drained the business account” before credit card companies could collect the disputed funds.

Several other arrests were made in the Los Angeles area and two more in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida. Authorities continue to look for one defendant.

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CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Bristles When RFK Jr. Tells Her the Truth About the Mainstream Media

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was not pleased during a Thursday interview she had with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., when he accused the media of being complicit in spreading false information during the COVID pandemic.

“You know, one of the big mistakes that you and many of your media colleagues made during COVID is to try to convince the American people that they should trust the experts,” Kennedy said.

“What we should do is trust the science,” he argued.

Collins countered, “The message was to trust the science, and what studies were finding.”

“No, it was trust the experts,” Kennedy retorted.

True. Who can forget how dismissive people like Dr. Anthony Fauci were of subjects like natural immunity, the lab leak theory, questioning the efficacy of the vaccines to stop the spread of COVID, and raising concerns about the potential health impacts of the vaccine, such as myocarditis?

The mainstream media narrative on all these subjects was to trust Fauci and the other Biden administration health officials, and they were wrong.

Kennedy contended that Americans should also be skeptical about any medical advice and do their own research.

“I would say be skeptical of authority. My father told me that when I was a young kid. People in authority lie. And we’ve seen a lot of that in our country,” RFK Jr. said.

“People in the media lie,” he continued. “And people need to make their own judgments and be skeptical, and maintain their capacity for critical thinking, and that was shut down during COVID, and the media was complicit in that.”

“Disagree on that last part,” Collins shot back and ended the interview.

DHS released its MAHA report Thursday, aimed at making children healthy again.

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New Study Links Longer Breastfeeding to Fewer Developmental Delays

The more scientists research the effects of breastfeeding, the more benefits they identify for infants. Some advantages extend past infancy into childhood and even have a potential effect on adult health.

A recent study found that breastfeeding for at least 6 months was associated with fewer delays in reaching social, language, and motor developmental milestones. It was also linked to a reduced likelihood of neurodevelopmental conditions that can cause disability.

The findings build on earlier studies from recent years associating breastfeeding with a lower likelihood of allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, and infant death.

“It is widely known that ‘breast is best’ and that babies who are fed breastmilk have fewer infections, less allergic diseases, healthier GI [gastrointestinal] tracts, and so much more,” Dr. David Berger, a board-certified pediatrician not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times in an email.

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Soros-backed Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who slammed the rich, doubles net worth since taking office

Democratic Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock — who has praised Marxism and cheered the redistribution of wealth — has made a killing since he took office, The Post has learned.

The Peach State pastor — whose campaign was heavily backed by far-left billionaire George Soros — doubled his net worth from just over $1 million in 2020 to as much as $2.2 million in 2024, financial disclosure records show.

Warnock, 55, made history in 2021 when he became Georgia’s first black senator by defeating incumbent Kelly Loeffler in a special election.

He accused his predecessor during the race of using her seat to get rich.

But records show he almost tripled his annual earnings, going from $242,101 when he was a reverend in 2020 to bringing in on average $659,977 each year since becoming a politician — between salaries for his various gigs, book deals and investments, records show.

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LA City Council OKs $14B budget, allowing for $7K per homeless person each month

The Los Angeles City Council passed a $14 billion budget that reduced citywide layoffs by cutting police hiring and fire department spending.

The approved budget uses emergency funds, such as $29 million from the budget stabilization fund, to pay for ongoing regular services, which is typically only done in a recession. That suggests the city has a structural deficit created by spending more than revenue will allow.

Notably, the budget cuts $36.63 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s proposed budget and reduces new police hiring in half from 480 new recruits to 230. At the same time, it restores funding for Animal Services and creates a new Bureau of Homelessness Oversight under the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Councilwoman Traci Park, whose district stretches from the Los Angeles International Airport to the fire-demolished Pacific Palisades, questioned the city’s continued funding of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which has failed all recent audits and from which Los Angeles County recently voted to terminate its funding and relationship.

“Spending a million and a half dollars per door to build micro-units of housing to give away to homeless drug addicts when the vast majority of our own city employees could never afford a condo at that price … I don’t think we should agree to spend another penny on homelessness … until we cast a vote on whether we’re finally getting a divorce from LAHSA and what the future of homeless services delivery looks like in LA,” said Park at Thursday’s meeting.

Park also attacked the cuts to the proposed LAFD budget and the halving of the new LAPD officer expansion.

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Thousands of rent-stabilized NYC apartments face foreclosure in tenant ‘bloodbath’

Thousands of rent-stabilized apartments in NYC are under threat of foreclosure as an increasing number of landlords stop paying their mortgages — making the coveted units even more scarce, insiders told The Post.

Buildings with a cumulative 176 rent-stabilized units have been foreclosed upon since 2022 – a figure that’s been doubling every year on average — with another 2,093 stabilized units have been put on notice by banks in April that landlords are defaulting on their mortgages, according to an analysis by PropertyShark data.

“It’s a bloodbath,” said Sarah Saltzberg, co-owner of Bohemia Realty Group, who rents pre-war units in upper Manhattan.

Owners lose money on stabilized units, so they leave them empty and skip the listing — or walk away entirely, leading to foreclosures, Saltzberg said.

“The owners are under water — that’s why in the past year it keeps happening over and over,” she said.

Many of the pre-1974 buildings — the year NYC established the rent stabilization system — desperately need repairs, but owners have stopped investing due to 2019 laws capping rent hikes after improvements at 2% and banning landlords from raising rents by up to 20% upon vacancy — changes that cut property values. Rising interest rates over the past three years also slowed renovations to a crawl.

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USDA ends ‘maximum pain bird flu gain-of-function experiments’ with Wuhan lab parent

The U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled its $1 million collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the parent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, to conduct gain-of-function experiments on bird flu viruses, Secretary Brooke Rollins told Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va.

Speaking at a House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Rollins said “it is my understanding that those [experiments] have been discontinued just in the last few months” when Cline asked for their status, started in the Biden administration, and that if she’s wrong, “then 100%, yes,” USDA will stop them.

Cline said her predecessor Tom Vilsack “defended and distorted this risky research” when Vilsack testified, denying it was a “collaboration” even though the “project title” calls it that and claiming there was no “data sharing” even though public records show USDA visiting the China lab to “share results on site.” The Chinese researcher lists the Wuhan Institute of Virology as an affiliation, Cline said.

“It is outrageous that U.S. taxpayer dollars were ever used by the Biden USDA to fund joint experiments with the Chinese Communist Party, especially research that could be catastrophic if mishandled or weaponized,” Cline said in a statement.

The White Coat Waste Project, which exposed through public records requests the five-year project on what it called “maximum pain bird flu gain-of-function experiments” on birds as young as a day old, cheered Rollins’ declaration.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for the creation of pandemic-causing pathogens, and now, following a White Coat Waste campaign, they won’t have to,” President Anthony Bellotti said.

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