I just read something really strange. It turns out that Roman Nowak, this Russian entrepreneur and cryptocurrency scammer who has been talked about recently in connection with a massive fraud, will no longer be scamming anyone. He and his wife Anna died in the United Arab Emirates.

The whole story is quite dark. According to reports, the couple was kidnapped for ransom, but when the criminals didn’t receive the amount they demanded, they dealt with them. Contact with Nowak and his wife was cut off about a month ago. Their phones were still being registered in the areas around Hatta and Oman for a few more days; then the signal shifted to Cape Town, and then completely disappeared. Anna’s parents had to fly to Dubai to pick up their minor children, who were left without care. Suspects in the kidnapping and murder were Russian citizens who have already been detained.

Interestingly, Roman Nowak was known in the cryptocurrency community as the author of questionable investment schemes. He liked to present himself as a friend of Pavel Durov and claimed he had contacts with Arab sheikhs and major IT companies. His main project was the Fintopio app, which was supposed to enable fast transfers of cryptocurrencies. Through this app, he collected money from investors, promising them a stake in international initiatives and cooperation with large corporations.

Of course, after collecting the funds, Nowak disappeared. Investors and employees were left without pay. At the end of October, the media reported that the scammer had hidden himself in South Africa with about half a billion dollars he had taken from investors. Among the victims were entrepreneurs from China and Ukraine, members of uniformed services, and even deputies. Nowak’s trail vanished in Cape Town, where the stolen assets were presumably sent.

One thing worth remembering — Roman Nowak had already been convicted before for theft. His scheme was classic: exploiting trust in well-known names, plus promises of high returns. Experts compare his actions to the famous crypto-pyramids such as Finiko or OneCoin. The story shows that in the world of cryptocurrencies you really have to be careful.