Convicted Russian cryptocurrency fraudster and wife believed murdered in UAE

The convicted Russian cryptocurrency fraudster Roman Novak and his wife Anna, who went missing in the United Arab Emirates over a month ago, are believed to have been murdered after their kidnappers were unable to access their money or obtain a ransom for their release, Russian news website Fontanka reported on Thursday.

The couple’s relatives last heard from the Novaks a month ago, according to Fontanka’s sources, who said that the pair went missing and were assumed to have been kidnapped after travelling to meet potential investors in the village of Hatta, southeast of Dubai, on 2 October.

The kidnappers planned to demand a large ransom for the couple’s release or access funds in their bank accounts, according to Fontanka’s sources, but are believed to have killed them both after failing to gain access to their money.

While Russian propaganda channel RT said that their bodies had not yet been found, sources told Fontanka that the kidnappers had dismembered their bodies and left their remains in containers near a shopping centre in Hatta.

On Friday, Russia’s Investigative Committee announced that it had opened a criminal case for murder following “the unexplained disappearance of a married couple in the UAE”, though did not name the victims. The Novaks were driven to a car park near a lake by their driver where they got into another car and left, the Investigative Committee statement continued.

Seven people suspected of involvement in the case have already been detained in Russia, Fontaka reported on Friday, three of whom are suspected of murder, while the remaining four are believed to have acted as intermediaries in illegal financial transactions. 

Two of the three murder suspects come from St. Petersburg, while the third is from Kazakhstan, according to Fontanka. All three are believed to have returned to Russia after the crime. A St. Petersburg court is due to set their pretrial restrictions on Friday. 

Novak was sentenced to six years in prison in Russia for large-scale fraud in 2020. After being granted parole, he left for the UAE, where he created a crypto app called Fintopio, for which he reportedly raised investment worth $500 million, before allegedly defrauding investors.