Russian couple Roman Novak and his wife Anna were kidnapped, dismembered and then buried in the desert of the United Arab Emirates by a gang seeking to take a “TREASURY"cryptocurrency.”
The news was originally reported by the Russian news site Fontanka, according to which Roman Novak, a Russian citizen who raised $500 million through a fraudulent cryptocurrency app and then absconded with investors’ money, was killed and dismembered along with his wife Anna after angry kidnappers discovered that his cryptocurrency wallet was empty.
The couple had been missing for more than a month. They were last seen on October 2, after being lured to a mountain resort outside Dubai by criminals posing as potential investors.
Their driver had accompanied them to a tourist spot, where they would then take another car for a supposed trip. After that, contact with them was cut off, except for a message in which Novak claimed to be stranded somewhere near the Omani border and urgently needed a large sum of money. Then, total silence.
Investigations revealed the movements of their phone in various areas: the Hatta region, the territory of Oman and the city of Cape Town. It is suspected that the phone was in the hands of the killers, who were trying to mislead investigators.
The couple are believed to have been lured to a villa in the city of Hatta, where they were held hostage while the kidnappers demanded the password to Novak’s cryptocurrency wallet. When they discovered the wallet was empty, the criminals allegedly killed them and dismembered their bodies, scattering the parts in trash bins near a shopping mall.
The mystery was solved with the discovery of remains and the arrest of suspects in Russia. Among them were two former soldiers from the war in Ukraine and a former police officer turned drug trafficker.