CRYPTO-KLEPTO LOGIN THEFT: DA
These guys are accused taking a “bit” out of crime.
A group of young professional men ransacked their pal’s luxury apartment after a night of drinking and forced him to cough up his cryptocurrency account-login information, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charges in a new complaint.
Defendant Stephen Orso, 25, allegedly demanded that Nicholas Truglia “provide him with login information for his cryptocurrency accounts while holding his head underwater in the bathtub, punching him in the stomach and throwing hot wax on him,” court papers charge.
Cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Blockchain among others, serve as a digital medium of exchange and payment.
Orso, the son of a wealthy venture capitalist, and three of pals, David Leica, 19, Steven Dorn, 29, and Chris David, 25, escorted a soused Truglia to his high-rise apartment on West 42nd Street at about 2:50 a.m. on Sept. 7, according to a criminal complaint.
Surveillance video shows the crew leaving about two hours later, and David appears “to be concealing a rectangular object under his sweatshirt consistent with a laptop computer,” the papers allege.
Truglia, 27, told cops he woke up and realized his laptop, two mobile phones and a thumb drive containing his cryptocurrency account information were missing.
The complaint doesn’t say whether the men, who flaunt their extravagant lifestyles in online posts, hacked into Truglia’s cryptocurrency account or stole any funds. Nor does it say which currency network he uses.
The next day, Truglia pinged his iPhone and it allegedly showed up in the vicinity of an apartment shared by the defendants.
Leica allegedly sent Truglia’s iPhone to him in an Uber the next day and David allegedly returned the laptop, which was splattered in wax, court papers say.
Defense lawyer Stacey Richman, who represents all four defendants, said that the accusations are outright falsehoods and that Truglia has since recanted.
She said that her clients were only trying to do the right thing by “helping a person who had overimbibed” get home from the club.
“For his own safety, they stepped up,” she said.
“I provided audio to the District Attorney’s Office wherein the complainant admits these allegations are false,” she maintained.
“It’s disappointing that our standard of journalism does not permit the innocent to have their day in court and slanders them upon accusation.”
The jet-setting defendants’ social-media accounts show them consorting with celebrities, including bad-boy quarterback Johnny Manziel and superstar Knicks player Kristaps Porzingis.
On Instagram, Orso, Leica and Dorn are shown smiling in front of a private jet and in dozens of photographs while posing with a string of stunning models at clubs and red-carpet events.
The defendants are each charged with one count of second-degree burglary.
The four men were all released without bail. They are due back in court March 14 to learn whether they’ve been indicted.