A convicted cryptocurrency fraudster and his wife watched each other being tortured to death after kidnappers failed to access their £380million, according to Russian investigators.
Roman Novak and his wife Anna vanished on October 2 after being lured to the Hatta resort area, around 80 miles from Dubai, by criminals pretending to be potential investors.
Their mobile phones last pinged near the barren Hajar mountains on the border with Oman, where police later uncovered the couple’s remains during a large-scale search across a 500-by-500-metre stretch of sand.
Russian media have revealed fresh details about what happened after the pair were abducted, saying the couple were tortured in front of each other as their captors tried to force access to their cryptocurrency wallets.
Those accounts say that when the codes were produced, the wallets were empty. The killers then packed the bodies into heavy polyethene bags and used industrial-strength solvents to speed decomposition and destroy DNA traces.
An investigation began after relatives alerted Dubai police that the couple had gone missing and were believed to have been kidnapped.
Roman, who in 2020 was sentenced to six years in prison in Russia for large-scale fraud, moved to the UAE after being granted parole.
There, he launched a crypto app called Fintopio, for which he reportedly attracted £380 million in investment before being accused of defrauding backers.
That figure is believed to be the sum the kidnappers were attempting to seize.
Roman Novak and his wife Anna disappeared on October 2 after they were lured by kidnappers pretending to be investors. They were forced to watch each other being tortured to death
After a large scale search, police found the couple’s bodies across a 500-by-500-metre stretch of sand
Svetlana Petrenko of the Russian Investigative Committee said: ‘The investigation has 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.’
Three Russian citizens have now been arrested in St Petersburg after returning from the UAE.
They were named as former police officer Konstantin Shakht, Yury Sharypov and Vladimir Dalekin.
Investigators say the men are suspected of direct involvement in the kidnapping and killings.
Sharypov and Dalekin have both pleaded guilty, while Shakht denies the charges. All three have been remanded in custody until December 28 as the investigation continues across both Russia and the Emirates.
Police in the UAE have not yet released a comment on the cross-border inquiry.
The motive is believed to be solely financial, linked to Novak’s crypto operations and the vast sums reportedly held under his control.
Officials in Russia say more arrests could follow as they attempt to identify the full network behind one of the country’s most shocking overseas murder cases in recent years.
Former police officer, Konstantin Shakht, was named as one of the main suspects in the crime. Officers say three people were apprehended upon returning from the UAE
A video was released showing heavily armed cops raiding a building and arresting suspects they say were involved in the couple’s deaths
The couple are said to have been driven to Hatta by their personal driver before boarding another vehicle for the rest of their journey.
Novak then messaged his contacts from his phone, telling them he was ‘stuck in the mountains on the Oman border’ and urgently needed £152,000. Investigators say contact with the couple was lost shortly afterwards.
Their phones were then traced to Hatta, Oman, and Cape Town before the signals were lost in early October.
Detectives said they believed their phones were deliberately turned on in those locations in order to confuse investigators.
In dramatic footage, three suspects were shown being detained by heavily armed cops in St Petersburg, and the Stavropol and Krasnodar regions of Russia.
Before his disappearance, Novak was under investigation over the alleged theft of £38million from crypto investors. He had allegedly presented his dealings with them on the pretext of business development.
He also often boasted of his connection to wealthy people, including Pavel Durov, the billionaire owner of the Telegram social media network. The couple were known for their luxurious lifestyle.
Novak was the founder of Fintopio, which claimed to provide quick cryptocurrency transfers and partnerships with top tech companies. The platform is said to have attracted investors from China and the Middle East.