They were the glittering golden couple of Dubai‘s high-flying crypto elite – a handsome, sharply dressed pair who flaunted private jets, fast cars, and connections to the world’s tech titans.
But when Roman Novak, 38, and his glamorous wife Anna, 37, climbed into a car bound for the luxurious mountain resort of Hatta on October 2, they could not have known they were heading toward one of the most gruesome and baffling murder cases modern Russia has seen.
Today, investigators say the couple – surrounded by wealth, status and promises of unimaginable digital riches – were forced to watch each other being tortured, before being killed, encased in concrete and dumped like discarded rubble in the remote deserts of the United Arab Emirates.
The saga has all the ingredients of a blockbuster thriller: Mysterious investors, ex-soldiers from the Ukraine war, a rogue homicide detective, shifting phone signals hopping between countries, and an alleged £380million fortune locked behind digital wallets that might never have existed.
Tragically, following the couple’s sudden demise, their two children were left orphaned as police frantically arrested three Russian men in connection to the kidnap and butchering of the money-minded couple.
This is the dramatic downfall of a man who called himself a crypto pioneer, his luxury-loving wife, and the final hours that turned a life of extravagance into a headline that has stunned Russia, the Middle East, and the entire global fintech world.
Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna were last seen alive in October when they drove to meet who they thought were investors in Dubai’s mountain resort Hatta
The disappearance that shook Dubai
To outsiders, Novak and his wife Anna looked like royalty in the lawless frontier of cryptocurrency wealth.
Novak had founded Fintopio, a sleek platform promising lightning-fast crypto transfers and partnerships with world-class tech companies.
He boasted of knowing Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram, and circulated among wealthy investors from China, Russia and the Middle East.
But even before his and Anna’s disappearance, cracks were forming beneath the polished facade.
Russian media had already likened him to multiple fraud cases – including one costing partners over seven million rubles (£68,000) – and he had been sentenced in 2020 to six years in a penal colony for large-scale financial deceit.
Upon release on parole, he bolted straight to the Emirates, where crypto entrepreneurs mixed freely with oligarchs, money launderers, venture capitalists and dreamers hoping to strike gold in the digital age.
By the time of his death, Novak was already under investigation again – this time for allegedly stealing more than £38million from investors under the guise of business development.
Yet the flows of cash did not stop and the couple continued to flaunt their glamorous life online.
They enjoyed private jets, haute couture and – shortly before vanishing – Novak proudly showcased his newest toy, a rare British AC Cobra, coveted by classic car collectors.
But it all unraveled on the night of October 2, when Novak sent a cryptic message to his contacts: ‘I’m stuck in the mountains on the Oman border. I urgently need £152,000.’
Within hours, all communications with the couple went dead, and what followed was a frantic international search – one that quickly turned dark.
The couple’s killers are alleged to have lured them into a rented villa by pretending to be potential investors
Before their deaths, Novak’s contacts received desperate messages from his phone telling them he urgently needed £152,000
The last journey
According to investigators, the couple’s personal driver took them towards Hatta, the idyllic mountain enclave around 80 miles from Dubai.
But upon reaching a parking area near a lake, Novak and Anna transferred into another vehicle supposedly sent by ‘investors’ eager to discuss business opportunities.
Those ‘investors’, detectives now say, were their killers.
Almost immediately after Novak’s desperate message was sent, the signals from the couple’s phones began behaving strangely – bouncing between Hatta, the Oman border, and later absurdly appearing near Cape Town, South Africa, before finally going silent on October 4.
Authorities now believe the phones were deliberately turned on in various countries to sow confusion – a crude but effective tactic aimed at delaying the discovery of the true crime scene.
Behind the scenes, the couple’s families were becoming frantic.
Anna’s father and stepmother rushed to Dubai, collecting the two young children the couple had left orphaned.
Relatives begged Emirati police to intervene, and meanwhile, somewhere deep in the mountains near the border, Novak and Anna were already enduring unimaginable terror.
The torture in the mountains
Russian investigators have now painted a chilling portrait of what happened after the couple entered the villa in Hatta.
There, according to sources speaking to Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, the kidnappers attempted to extract access codes to Novak’s cryptocurrency wallets – wallets they believed held hundreds of millions of pounds.
What happened next is almost too horrific to comprehend.
The kidnappers forced the couple to watch each other being tortured in a bid to gain the codes, Russian investigators said.
Novak eventually provided access, but when the killers checked the wallet, they allegedly found nothing.
‘Novak didn’t resist – but there was no cryptocurrency left. The wallet was empty,’ an early report by Fontanka news outlet stated in November.
The pair failed to raise a ransom from elsewhere. ‘Roman and Anna were killed and then dismembered.
‘Emirati police found traces of Anna Novak’s blood at the villa, blood in the rented car, a cache of knives near the crime scene, and one of the organisers’ T-shirts left behind in haste,’ reported Fontanka.
Whether Novak has hidden the funds, spent them, or never possessed them in the first place remains unknown.
But the reaction of the kidnappers sealed the couple’s fate.
Anna’s father and her stepmother had to travel to the UAE to collect the deceased couple’s two children
The murders and the concrete grave
When the codes yielded no riches, the attackers killed both Novak and Anna.
Early rumours claimed they were dismembered and stuffed into bags, but investigators later clarified the remains themselves were found intact, though concealed in an elaborate attempt to hide the bodies forever.
The killers placed the couple’s remains into thick, industrial-strength polythene bags.
Then, in a move straight from a cartel handbook, they encased the bodies in concrete, presumably hoping the density would slow decomposition and eliminate DNA evidence.
To accelerate the process, solvents were believed to be used in another grim attempt to erase any trace of the crime.
Finally, the concrete slabs containing the bodies were dragged out to the remote desert – a barren, almost lunar landscape stretching mile upon mile of sand – and buried.
Weeks passed before the horrific discovery.
It wasn’t until November that search teams, scouring a 500-by-500 metre area of desolate terrain, finally uncovered the slabs.
Forensic specialists eventually confirmed what everyone had feared. Novak and Anna had been found dead.
The discovery would ignite one of the most complex cross-border investigations Russia has conducted in years.
The Dubai-based couple – who boasted of an affluent life of fast cars and private jets on social media – were ‘extorted’ for crypto-currency, said reports citing law enforcement
The kidnappers forced the couple to watch each other being tortured in a bid to gain the codes, Russian investigators said. (Pictured: Roman Novak’s wife, Anna)
The suspects: Ex-soldiers and a rogue detective
As the investigation deepened, a chilling cast of suspects emerged.
Three Russian nationals – Konstantin Shakht, 53, a former homicide investigator turned drug smuggler, and two former soldiers who had fought for Russia in the war in Ukraine, Yury Sharypov, 46, and Vladimir Dalekin, 45 – were arrested after returning to Russia from Dubai.
According to reports, these men had travelled to Dubai posing as wealthy investors eager to finance Novak’s growing empire.
But instead, they orchestrated the couple’s abduction.
Sharypov and Daleskin have pleaded guilty. Shakht vehemently denies any involvement.
All three have been remanded in custody until December 28, awaiting extradition to St Petersburg and facing the full weight of charges that include kidnapping, torture, murder and attempt to conceal evidence.
Police in the UAE have not yet released a comment on the cross-border inquiry.
However, Russian media reports that another five young men under the age of 25 are suspected of involvement in the wider conspiracy – a network still being mapped by investigators in both Russia and the UAE.
Russian investigator Svetlana Petrenko said: ‘The investigation established that the killers had accomplices who helped organise the abduction.
‘They rented cars and premises where the two victims were held by force.
‘After the murder, the perpetrators disposed of the knives and the victims’ personal belongings, leaving them in different emirates.’
Konstantin Shakht, 53, suspected in the murder and dismembering of crypto multi-millionaire Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna
Konstantin Shakht, Yury Sharypov, and Vladimir Dalekin, – suspects in the murder and dismembering of crypto multi-millionaire Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna, were detained in Russia
The lavish life built on lies
To understand why Novak and Anna became targets, investigators have turned their attention to the world he had built for himself – a world of staggering wealth, bold claims and increasingly irritated investors.
Novak fashioned himself as a crypto visionary.
His company, Fintopio, marketed itself as a cutting-edge platform for fast and secure crypto transfers.
Investors were told the system was designed by ‘elite Ukrainian programmers’ and backed by major technological partnerships.
Money poured in – especially from China and wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen drawn to the allure of new digital fortunes.
At one point, the platform allegedly attracted £380million in investment.
But according to sources cited by Russian outlet KP, Novak had a talent not for building financial empires, but for building financial illusions.
‘Novak had a knack for presenting himself as someone operating on the same level as Pavel Durov and Arab sheikhs. In reality, he was simply a talented manipulator who convinced people to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars,’ the source said.
The question investigators now face is simple – yet terrifying.
Was Novak Novak a visionary crypto executive murdered for his fortune or was he a master con artist killed when the illusion finally caught up with him?
Did the kidnappers expect a fortune that never existed or did Novak hide the money somewhere only he knew?
The answers may be buried forever in the desert alongside him.
Novak flaunted online pictures of what he claimed was his vintage British Cobra car before he and Anna vanished
Novak also shared pictures purportedly showing his Rolls-Royce
Searching for answers: The investigation spans three countries
The global web of this case left law enforcement agencies scrambling.
In the UAE, police have remained uncharacteristically silent – offering no official comment since the remains were found.
But behind the scenes, forensic teams are still working to determine whether the bodies will be sent to Russia for examination and burial.
In Russia, the Investigative Committee has released stark details and video footage of the suspects’ dramatic arrests in St Petersburg and the Stavropol and Krasnodar regions.
Armed SWAT teams stormed buildings in scenes that looked more like an action film than police routine.
In South Africa, authorities briefly examined the bizarre pinging of the couple’s phones near Cape Town – though investigators now believe those signals were artificially generated to thrown them off the trail.
Meanwhile, Novak and Anna’s two young children are safe with Anna’s family – left orphaned by a crime that has rattled the entire nation.
‘Emirati police found traces of Anna Novak’s blood at the villa, blood in the rented car, a cache of knives near the crime scene, and one of the organisers’ T-shirts left behind in haste,’ reported Fontanka
The case that won’t die
Even as more arrests are expected, the Novak case continues to haunt both Russia and the UAE – a stark reminder of the dangerous crossroads where wealth, digital currencies and criminal ambition collide.
Novak and Anna lived a life that looked enviable from the outside.
But in the the end, their carefully curated world collapsed in the most horrifying way possible – alone in the mountains, surrounded by men they believed were business allies.
Their final hours were filled with betrayal, desperation, and a brutal display of greed that stunned even seasoned investigators.
And yet, the biggest mystery remains. Where is the money?
If Novak truly controlled a £380million crypto empire, it has vanished – not into thin air, but into the shadows of the blockchain, where fortunes can hide forever.
Until that missing fortune is located, unil the accomplices are uncovered, and until someone can explain the truth behind the empty wallet, the Novak saga will remain a one of the most dramatic overseas murder cases in Russian history.