Russian crypto couple forced to watch each other’s torture before being buried in concrete in UAE desert
Roman Novak, 38, and his partner Anna, 37, were forced to watch each other be tortured to death after their kidnappers failed in their extortion plans
Roman Novak, 38, and his partner Anna, 37, were forced to watch each other be tortured to death after their kidnappers failed in their extortion plans.
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A Russian cryptocurrency scammer and his wife’s remains were found in concrete tombs buried deep in a UAE desert after they were brutally kidnapped and killed.
Roman Novak, 38, and his partner Anna, 37, were forced to watch each other be tortured to death after their kidnappers failed in their extortion plans.
Their remains were discovered beneath the sand, encased in concrete, by investigators in November, weeks after they vanished.
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According to reports, the couple had been tricked into travelling to a rented villa in Hatta, 80 miles from Dubai, by men pretending to be potential investors.
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Social media
According to reports, the couple had been tricked into travelling to a rented villa in Hatta, 80 miles from Dubai, by men pretending to be potential investors.
Once they arrived, they were abducted and tortured for their cryptocurrency accounts details, believed to contain hundreds of millions of dollars.
But after being unable to extract the cash, the thugs allegedly stabbed Mr Novak and his wife, forcing the pair to face one another as they died.
The victim’s bodies were then stuffed into strong polyethylene bags, before industrial-strength solvents were poured over them to speed up decomposition.
Authorities in the Emirates have been weighing up whether to send the remains to Russia for forensic analysis and eventual burial.
The couple’s relatives first reported them missing in October after repeatedly failing to contact them.
Officials say the couple were last seen by their personal driver, who had driven them to Hatta, before they joined another vehicle for the rest of the journey.
Novak then sent desperate text messages, telling friends he was “stuck in the mountains on the Oman border” and urgently needed £152,000.
Authorities in the Emirates recovered the couple’s bodies during a search in a remote desert location.
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After these messages were sent, all contact with the couple was lost.
Investigators say the couple’s mobile phones showed activity for several days after their disappearance, with signals pinging in Hatta and later mysteriously near Cape Town, South Africa, before going dark on October 4.
Detectives believe the kidnappers turned on the phone in several locations in an attempt to confuse investigators.
The couple’s two young children had been left at the family home in Dubai and have now been collected by Anna’s father and stepmother.
Several Russian nationals have since been arrested on suspicion of involvement, including former police officer Constantin Shakht, Yury Sharypov and Vladimir Dalekin.
Sharypov and Dalekin have both pleaded guilty. Shakht continues to deny playing a role.
All three men were arrested after returning to Russia from the UAE and are currently being held in prison before being transferred to St Petersburg.
Vovak had a long history of financial fraud, he was sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony in Russia in 2020 for large-scale fraud.
Constantin Shakht, a former police officer is among those who were detained for the couple’s murder.
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He had persuaded investors from China, the Middle East and elsewhere to lump large sums of cash into his scheme, raising the equivalent of about £380million.
Novak duped shareholders by promising ties to major tech companies and boasting of powerful industry connections.
He has also been linked to an earlier fraud case involving alleged deception of business partners and losses of more than 7 million roubles.
Russian media believe these financial disputes were strongly linked to the circumstances surrounding Novak’s kidnap and murder.
Authorities in the UAE are yet to comment on the case.
Forensic work and a wider criminal investigation remain ongoing.
