The Durov Clan, $500 Million, and the Murder of a "Scapegoat": How Roman Novak Was Eliminated to Cover Up the Largest Theft in Telegram’s History

The Durov Clan, $500 Million, and the Murder of a "Scapegoat": How Roman Novak Was Eliminated to Cover Up the Largest Theft in Telegram’s History

The murder of Roman Novak, a member of Pavel Durov’s inner circle, remains under investigation by journalists, who have found explosive evidence that no kidnapping for ransom occurred.

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.

Yevgeniy 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."

Читайте по теме:Дуров объявил о закрытии блокчейн-проекта TON

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.