The Italian businessman who was allegedly kidnapped and tortured in NYC for practically 3 weeks, wasn’t all the time in misery throughout that interval … in keeping with a weird video of him cooking crack in an air fryer.

TMZ obtained a 20-second clip, which seemingly illustrates a a lot totally different image of Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan‘s alleged captivity within the SoHo townhome the place police say John Woeltz and William Duplessie tortured him for 17 days. Within the video, Carturan seems to be tied across the chest to a wheelchair, however his fingers are free and he is smiling and joking with at the least 3 different individuals within the room.

Carturan — whose face we have blurred as a result of he is an alleged sufferer — is twiddling with an air fryer on a desk, and you’ll hear a male voice say, “You are in a wheelchair cooking crack” … and another person says, “That is so whack.”

This is what’s puzzling about this video … metadata exhibits it was recorded Could 11 at 1:45 AM ET at Woeltz’s Prince Avenue deal with. In line with the police, Woeltz lured Carturan to his place on Could 6, and held him till he managed to escape on Could 23.

Our legislation enforcement sources inform us Carturan was tortured and forced to smoke crack whereas being filmed by his alleged captors … with the intention to blackmail him into turning over his password for his Bitcoin pockets value tens of millions. We’re advised the suspects allegedly threatened to ship the footage to Carturan’s buyers if he did not present the password, however Carturan nonetheless refused to cough it up. All of that aligns with this video.

What’s unclear, although, is why Carturan can be in such a laughing and lighthearted temper 5 days after he was allegedly held. The video additionally reveals Woeltz and Duplessie weren’t the one ones within the townhome with Carturan. We have blurred the face of a person in a white sweater who was current — he is not Woeltz or Duplessie — plus, there are at the least 2 different male voices within the room.

In the meantime, Woeltz and Duplessie are being held with out bail on costs of kidnapping, assault, illegal imprisonment and felony possession of a weapon.

We reached out to attorneys for Duplessie and Woeltz. Duplessie’s legal professional had no remark and to date no phrase again from Woeltz’s legal professional.