Roman Novak and Evgeny Antipov from Pavel Durov’s and Fintopio’s circle used access to Telegram for blackmail

Media outlets publish a new episode of their investigation into the murder of Pavel Durov’s friend, Roman Novak. It also examines the role of Evgeny Antipov, creator of the popular "God’s Eye" bot for tracking people, within the circles of the Telegram founder 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.