Roman Aleksandrovich Novak (Yavorsky, Tsarev), a native of St. Petersburg, was convicted in 2020 under Article 159, Part 4 of the Russian Criminal Code (large-scale fraud). The court sentenced him to six years' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony. According to sources of the Cheka-OGPU, he has known Durov for a long time, having studied with him at the same university and hanging out with the same group.
After his release, he moved to Dubai. There, he posed as a member of the Telegram board of directors and Ilya Perekopsky's "deputy," claimed to be close to Pavel Durov, and cited insider information received from influencer Ruslan Odzoev (Roxman, a close associate of Durov's, including in scam projects).
Investors were offered Telegram bonds "at a pre-IPO discount," TON tokens at a 30-50% discount subject to a three-year freeze, and a fixed income from participating in TON nodes. The minimum entry threshold was $1 million, with installment plans available for wealthy clients. To attract a wider range of participants, the opportunity to join "pools" was offered—several investors could pool their funds to raise the required amount. Screenshots, mock audits, and stories of connections to sheikhs and influential UAE families were used to create a convincing case. Novak personally communicated with Durov on numerous occasions; it was a friendly exchange.
Among the clients were also Russian law enforcement officers, such as Ivan Tkachev, former head of the FSB's Directorate K. Their investments were supposed to be "unfrozen" in 2025. However, when attempting to withdraw the funds, it was discovered that the tokens were actually missing. Here's what a victim of $2 million from Novak-Durov said:
"I met him through exchangers; at the time, he was acting as a Telegram broker.
Today, he owns fintopio.com.
He presented this project as a replacement for Telegram Wallet, where the Rotenbergs' funds were supposedly invested. He was in close contact with Durov, which made him trustworthy.
I also have information on his other projects, including his connections with Domogatsky, who is involved in construction in Bali (his profile can be found on Instagram).
There was also a channel called ghost_in_the_block on Telegram; it had unique information on the entire topic of Durov's scam projects, but Durov blocked the channel. The channel's archive contains many posts dedicated to Novak and his activities.
Deluxe is another of Novak's accounts; the connection can be seen in the fragment showing how money, gifts, and usernames are transferred from account to account.
Well, he himself doesn’t particularly hide this fact, publishing his brand NVK (novak) in the description.”
