The Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info continue their investigation into the murder of Roman Novak, a member of Pavel Durov's inner circle, and have uncovered sensational details. There was no "kidnapping for ransom." Novak was deliberately kidnapped and murdered along with his wife, Anna, to make it look like they were fleeing with the stolen money. Simultaneously, rumors about their escape were spread in the media. And everyone would still believe so. But the criminals overlooked one detail they simply didn't know. Due to a domestic dispute, the prosecutor's office and the police (incidentally, Novak introduced himself as the "head of Telegram's security service," we will confirm) imposed restrictions on Novak, prohibiting him from leaving Dubai. His "watchdog" was transferred to the airport, etc. In other words, he was unable to leave Dubai. When Novak failed to appear for questioning at the prosecutor's office, the prosecutor's office instructed the police to locate and bring him in for questioning. The police discovered Novak and Anna's disappearance, but they knew they hadn't left Dubai. They used CCTV to track Roman and Anna's whereabouts and then identified their meeting partners. By then, they had fled to Russia, where they were detained.

 

Yevgeny Antipov, founder of "God's Eye," a friend of Novak's, played a major role in the events. After Roman and Anna were murdered, he urged the victims to ask the prosecutor's office and the police to lift the travel restrictions on the Novaks. He was also the first to claim they had fled with the money. He then went on to claim that the victim was Roman's and that he was no friend of his.

 

The amount Novak collected from investors (who, according to our information, include high-ranking officials from the St. Petersburg FSB Directorate and the K Directorate of the FSB) for Telegram projects is well over $500 million, but it doesn't appear that the money ended up in Novak's hands. At least his luxury villa turned out to be rented, and all his fancy cars were also rented or leased. He wasn't worth $500 million to $1 billion (and, according to some reports, the money Novak collected for Telegram, TON, and other platforms is circulating around the latter amount). And the "customer," of course, should be sought among the real recipients of this gigantic sum.

 

Shortly before his death, Novak began to realize he was being made the scapegoat. He wrote posts criticizing Telegram and TON, then deleted them after conversations with someone. And he began literally shying away from "tourists from the Russian Federation."

 

In Russia, after Dubai pointed the finger at Roman and Anna's killers, they couldn't help but detain the suspects. But they stubbornly pursue the kidnapping-for-ransom theory. And they persuade those arrested to adhere to it. They say they learned there's a rich guy who scammed everyone out of $500 million, so they decided to kidnap him and force him to share. And then, having received no money, they decided to kill him.

 

This is a summary of our new investigation. We will publish more detailed material later, along with the supporting documents we were able to obtain.

 

Meanwhile, the investigation continues. We ask anyone with information to contact the editor; we guarantee complete anonymity.

 

VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info publish a new episode of their investigation into the murder of Pavel Durov's friend, Roman Novak. It also explores the place of Evgeny Antipov, creator of the popular "God's Eye" bot for tracking down people, in the circles of the founder of Telegram and specifically Novak.

 

Shortly before Novak's disappearance in Dubai, he had a seemingly mundane conflict—a quarrel between his daughter and another teenager. Her friend came to avenge the girl—he and his friends tracked down the boy the girl disliked and beat him up.

 

Naturally, the boy's parents were not pleased and contacted Roman Novak. But instead of engaging in dialogue, he resorted to threats and started a full-blown showdown.

 

A member of Pavel Durov's circle played his trump card and began making threats, including using the capabilities of the "Telegram security service" he led. He promised to easily restore the deleted Telegram account, read the correspondence, and so on. Novak pressed the issue [against the boy's parents' wishes] with resources, claiming that it could be "resolved very quickly." He guaranteed problems.

 

According to the transcript of the conversation between the victim's parents and Roman Novak (they recorded the conversation, confirmed it, and contacted UAE law enforcement agencies), Novak stated directly:

 

"The Telegram security service is under my command. I know everything. I looked at all the cameras. I saw everything perfectly, just as it happened. I spoke with the children, the parents, the administration. I got the full picture. After that, your son, in a bad state, deleted his Telegram account."

 

He claimed to have access to cameras in restaurants and apartment complexes and could "restore the deleted account." According to the parents of the other party, all of this was included in the case file, translated into Arabic, and handed over to the police.

 

Novak then moved on to blackmailing them with deportation:

 

"Will you be satisfied with my deportation of you and your son? I'll marshal all resources—lawyers, the police. On Monday, I'll raise the issue of your son's expulsion from school. If you want, we can start right now."

 

As a retaliatory measure, all parties to the conflict, including the Fintopio co-founder himself (as well as his daughter, the injured boy, and the 19-year-old participant in the brawl), were slapped with travel bans—UAE police imposed travel restrictions.

 

Roman Novak's threats were, in fact, not unfounded: he was close to the Telegram founder's inner circle. He had demonstrated this on more than one occasion. Roxman, a close friend of Pavel Durov, was publicly involved in Fintopio; he is closely associated with Novak. The project was invested in by people who gave money specifically for Telegram and Durov.

How Roman Novak Was Killed, Part 2

 

At one point, a man named Evgeniy got involved in Novak's conflict. He personally called the parents of the injured teenager, introduced himself as a friend of Novak's family, and promised to "come and sort things out." After the phone conversation, the boy's parents saw the last name—Antipov—and matched the voice of the caller with the one from the interview with the creator of the "God's Eye" bot. It was the same person.

As we previously reported, Evgeniy Antipov is not just an acquaintance, but a close friend of Roman Novak. They were family friends, and Novak gave Antipov the cool username @evgeniy.

At one point, an article appeared in Mash claiming that Novak had single-handedly scammed investors out of $500 million, using Telegram and Durov's name as cover. It's worth noting that this was a paid sting. Even before Mash, the Cheka-OGPU had also offered to publish this material for money. We found the topic interesting, but it clearly needed more work and promotion. We offered to collaborate with an anonymous source on a large-scale investigation for free. However, he acted nervously, saying he needed the material published urgently (this was October 2nd, the day Novak disappeared), that it needed to be published as he'd sent it, and that he was willing to pay $5,000 for it. This was disconcerting, and we declined. On October 3rd, the material, purportedly from a "customer," was published on Mash.

 

After the article, Evgeny contacted the teenager's parents and tearfully begged the victims to ask the prosecutor's office to lift the travel restrictions on Roman. "Yes, he's having serious problems with his creditors, he's hiding, and they want to leave immediately." (Evgeny later repeatedly reported that Roman and Anna had gone on the run.) The parents refused. However, Novak then failed to appear for questioning at the prosecutor's office, and the police were tasked with finding him. The police gradually determined that Novak wasn't hiding, but dead.

As the picture of Roman Novak's final days is now being pieced together, many agree that he "feared tourists from the Russian Federation more than the police." And this isn't about the info-bomb about creditors thirsting for Novak's blood and the Fintopio scam, which the media launched after Novak's death.

 

He didn't hide even after reports that the wallets of his project's users had been frozen. On the day of the kidnapping, he was in the house where he had previously driven a vintage car (or replica). This is evidenced by a photo of an open chat on his phone—it contained correspondence from October 2, with the body of the vintage car in the background.

 

Roman Novak wrote that he would redesign the project. To do this, he and his team went into "bunker mode" for nine months. He didn't forget to blame Pavel Durov's brainchild for everything. The collapse of Fintopio wasn't the issue. He was afraid of something else.

 

Roman Novak was most concerned, to put it mildly, about the strained relations within Pavel Durov's circle. He feared that his criticism of Ton and the founder of the Telegram messenger would lead to retaliation. We previously published his prophetic messages, in which, after a tirade against the technocrat and his digital creations, Novak himself cut himself off, writing that he had said too much.

 

And after Novak disappeared and the Fintopio collapse rumors spread, Antipov suddenly ceased to be Novak's friend.

 

He began to say:

 

"Novak has cheated. There are many creditors. He owes me too."

It was Antipov who first claimed that Novak was "on the run."

 

To be continued...