By Gloria Nosa
Roman Novak and his wife, Anna, had spent years building a reputation—controversial, ambitious, and often shrouded in mystery. In the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency, their names were well known: Roman as a former tech entrepreneur once convicted of financial fraud in Russia, and Anna as his closest partner in both business and life. Together they had relocated to the United Arab Emirates after Roman was released on parole, hoping to rebuild their fortunes and wipe clean the notoriety that followed them.
By mid-2025, their project—a digital investment platform called Fintopio—had already attracted staggering sums. Russian investigators estimated that nearly £380 million had flowed into the platform from hopeful investors worldwide. But soon came allegations of fraud, vanished funds, and furious backers demanding answers. As pressure mounted, Roman and Anna suddenly became the targets of individuals far more dangerous than angry investors or government regulators.
According to emerging reports from Russia, their final days were the result of a calculated scheme: a criminal group posing as wealthy investors contacted Roman with promises of a lucrative partnership. They spoke his language—money, strategy, expansion. What he didn’t know was that their true aim was far simpler and far deadlier: to seize control of the couple’s crypto assets.
On October 2, Roman and Anna travelled to Hatta, a quiet but picturesque resort area near the Hajar mountains, roughly 80 miles from Dubai. They believed they were meeting potential business partners. Instead, they were walking into an ambush.
The Disappearance
When the couple failed to return home, their phones stopped transmitting near a remote stretch close to the Oman border. Hours later, relatives grew worried. Days later, they were terrified. And by the end of the week, their family in Russia alerted Dubai authorities, insisting the couple had likely been abducted.
A massive search followed. Investigators traced the final signal from their devices to a barren section of desert. Heavy machinery was deployed to excavate a 500m by 500m area of sand and rock—an unusually large perimeter that immediately signalled foul play. After more than a month, police confirmed the worst: human remains had been found, sealed inside thick industrial plastic, soaked in chemical agents meant to erase DNA and accelerate decomposition.
But the most chilling detail emerged from Russian investigative briefs shared with the media: Roman and Anna were tortured in captivity, forced to watch each other suffer, as their abductors attempted to retrieve access codes to the massive cryptocurrency holdings believed to be under the couple’s control. Yet the kidnappers gained nothing—because the digital wallets they were after were empty.
Authorities refused to disclose the exact methods used during the torture, calling them “extreme, deliberate and inhuman,” and warning media outlets against publishing the specifics. What is clear is that the killers never received the information they wanted. Realising the funds were unreachable, the criminals executed the couple, disposed of their belongings, and scattered the evidence across multiple locations in the UAE.
The Investigation Widens
Russia’s Investigative Committee soon launched its own parallel inquiry. Spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko confirmed that the crime involved several accomplices who planned logistics, rented apartments, procured vehicles, and coordinated communications with the victims. After the killings, the same accomplices allegedly dumped knives and personal effects across various emirates in an attempt to confuse detectives and derail the investigation.
A Web of Crime Unravels
Weeks later, the breakthrough came—not in the UAE, but in St Petersburg, Russia, where three men returning from the Gulf were arrested. They were identified as:
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Konstantin Shakht – a former police officer
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Yury Sharypov
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Vladimir Dalekin
According to investigators, all three had travelled to the UAE shortly before Roman and Anna vanished. Sharypov and Dalekin reportedly confessed, admitting their roles in the kidnapping plot and acknowledging that the scheme revolved around accessing the couple’s supposed cryptocurrency vault. Shakht, however, denied involvement, insisting he had no knowledge of the killings. Despite this, the court ordered all three suspects held in custody until at least December 28 as the investigation expands.
Authorities believe additional suspects—possibly organisers, financiers, and on-ground collaborators—remain at large in the UAE and beyond. International arrest warrants are being processed.
The Rise and Fall of Roman Novak
Roman’s past is expected to play a central role in the ongoing case. In 2020, he was sentenced in Russia to six years in prison for large-scale fraud. After gaining early release, he relocated to the UAE and founded Fintopio, a platform promising unprecedented returns through crypto-driven investments. The project allegedly raised vast sums, but investors later accused him of running an elaborate scheme to siphon out funds.
It is still unclear whether the criminals believed Roman still had access to the missing millions—or whether they mistakenly assumed that the couple kept their fortune in personal wallets instead of offshore accounts. What is known is that this assumption cost two people their lives.
A Crime That Shocks Even a Hardened Industry
The brutal nature of the murders has reverberated through crypto circles worldwide. While digital assets have long attracted fraud, hacks, and theft, the scale and savagery of this case stand out even in an industry often associated with risk and secrecy.
For Roman and Anna, the pursuit of digital wealth ended in one of the most horrifying ways imaginable. For investigators, the case is far from closed. And for the global crypto community, the story serves as a grim reminder of the dangerous intersection between money, anonymity, and crime.
