Add The New York Post on Google A lawyer in town for work was abducted outside a Manhattan strip club by four thieves who swiped his Rolex and ditched him in New Jersey battered, bruised and soaked in blood, the feds charged Tuesday.
Dani Amaneul, Kibret Meles and Kenny Fetire allegedly lured the intoxicated attorney into their Hyundai parked outside Rick’s Cabaret on West 33rd Street, steps from the Empire State Building, just before 4 a.m. on June 12 under the guise of driving him to his hotel.
But instead, the trio — plus a fourth man who is cooperating with the feds — jumped the jiggle joint patron, punching him and stabbing him with what the boozed-up barrister thought was a machete as they drove through the Lincoln Tunnel into the Garden State, court papers allege.
The “calculated” crew snatched his watch and iPhone during the attack, and abandoned him soon after near a nature reserve in West Orange, NJ.
The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was discovered there — with his light blue Lacoste polo shirt now drenched in blood — at around 5:30 a.m. by a passing cyclist who called the cops, federal prosecutors said.
“A victim should not have to fear that a night out will end with him being forced across state lines at the hands of violent kidnappers,” Manhattan US Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a news release.
Amanuel, 28, and the mystery cooperator had met the victim earlier in the night at the Moxy hotel in Times Square, where the attorney was having dinner and drinks, according to prosecutors and law enforcement sources.
At around 12:30 a.m., the three men took a taxi to the strip club, where the lawyer at some point separated from his new acquaintances and followed a dancer into a VIP room, court papers claimed.
When the victim left the jiggle joint “visibly intoxicated” at 3:56 a.m., the fourth man allegedly lured him into the waiting Hyundai Sonata after promising to give him a ride back to his hotel, prosecutors said.
The crew also allegedly threatened to kill the attorney during the violent drive if he did not provide his iPhone password, court papers alleged.
The abducted lawyer was hospitalized for three days with multiple broken bones around his eyes, a laceration to his finger that required stitches and bruising, prosecutors said.
Fetiere, 26, of West Orange, and Meles, 28, of Livingston, NJ, were both arrested Tuesday morning and were awaiting their first appearance in Manhattan federal court in front of US Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron.
Amanuel, of Manhattan, remained at-large as of Tuesday afternoon.
The feds, who said they have jurisdiction because the alleged thieves crossed state lines, charged all three with conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping, each of which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors are seeking to detain all three pending trial.
Fetiere and Meles were arrested near Seattle, Washington in August on a separate charge of robbing a man they knew from high school of his iPhone after punching him several times in the face. Fetiere was also busted in November 2025 for a New Jersey drunk driving episode in which he injured another vehicle’s driver and passenger, the feds said.
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Prosecutors said they worked with the FBI, NYPD and Essex County Sheriff’s Office to identify the crew allegedly behind the bloody scheme.
“No one should fear being kidnapped off the streets, and we will continue to prioritize cases that threaten the safety of our communities,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. in a statement.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday which defense attorneys were representing the three men charged in the case.
— Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Larry Celona
