By WILL STEWART and SABRINA PENTY, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
A man suspected of murdering a Russian crypto millionaire and his wife has mysteriously died in a United Arab Emirates prison.
Former Russian war fighter Vladimir Dalekin, 45, was found dead in his cell last month, but news of his death was only revealed today by Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service.
He was one of the three people accused of killing and dismembering Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna, 37, a former TV reporter, in Dubai.
According to Russian media, Dalekin died from an unspecified 'longstanding' and 'chronic illness,' but he had not been reported to have suffered from health problems previously.
UAE-based Novak and Anna were last seen alive in October last year when they drove to meet who they believed were investors in Dubai's mountain resort Hatta.
The couple, who boasted of an affluent life of fast cars and private jets on social media, were kidnapped and then brutally murdered in a villa.
Their remains were discovered buried in a desert after their families back in Russia reported them as missing.
Dalekin and two other Russians - Konstantin Shakht, 53, a former homicide investigator turned drugs smuggler, and Yury Sharypov, 46, a war fighter - were accused of posing as the 'investors' and killing Novak and his wife.
Vladimir Dalekin (pictured), who was suspected of murdering a Russian crypto millionaire and his wife, has mysteriously died in a United Arab Emirates prison
Roman Novak, 38, and his wife Anna, 37, a former TV reporter (pictured), were kidnapped and murdered last year in Dubai
Pictured: Anna, who was murdered in Dubai last year
They had travelled to the UAE on three separate occasions, and after abducting the couple, they demanded the password to Novak’s crypto wallet, it was alleged.
Novak had messaged contacts in his phone to say he was 'stuck in the mountains on the Oman border' and desperately needed £152,000.
He had boasted of wealthy contacts including the billionaire owner of the Telegram social media empire, Pavel Durov.
Novak was under investigation at the time he disappeared over the alleged theft of more than £38million from crypto investors on the pretext of business development.
Among the alleged victims were 'businessmen from China and Middle Eastern countries', according to a Russian report.
'He had a knack for presenting himself as someone operating on the same level as Pavel Durov and Arab sheikhs,' said Komsomolskaya Pravda [KP] newspaper.
'In reality, Novak was simply a talented manipulator who managed to convince people to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars.'
He ran a 'fast and reliable crypto network' with an app developed 'by Ukrainian programmers'.
Novak had earlier served a prison sentence for embezzlement, according to Russian reports.
The couple's orphaned children were collected by Anna's parents after their disappearance.