- The investigation that led to Pavel Durov’s arrest began in February 2024 | Photo: Gett/Nadine Rupp
On Wednesday, August 28, French justice charged Pavel Durov, founder of the messaging app Telegram, with money laundering and complicity in the dissemination of paedophile images. However, the court agreed to the release of the Russian businessman under police control and on payment of a bail of 5 million euros.
“He has been placed under judicial surveillance, with the obligation to post a bail of 5 million euros, report to the police twice a week and be prohibited from leaving French territory,” said Laure Beccuau, the highest authority of the French Prosecutor’s Office, in a statement reported by the EFE news agency.
Durov He had been detained since Saturday, August 24after he was arrested at an airport in Le Bourget, located on the outskirts of Paris.
The investigation that led to Durov’s arrest was opened on a preliminary basis in February 2024 and involved various French agencies fighting cybercrime, organised crime and fraud.
What crimes is the founder of Telegram accused of?
The list of crimes charged against Pavel Durov includes complicity in the administration of an online platform for facilitating illegal transactions by organised gangs, complicity in fraud and drug trafficking.
Added to this, among other charges, is the alleged responsibility of the Russian-born billionaire for the dissemination of material on Telegram that involved sexual abuse of minors.
He is also accused of failing to cooperate with the justice system by providing data and information on possible criminal acts and charges related to the operation and encryption of the messaging platform.
The French prosecutor’s office said Telegram, created in 2013, has been involved in multiple cases involving various offences (such as child pornography, online hate and drug trafficking) and that the company offered an “almost total lack of response” to judicial requests.
Who is Pavel Durov?
Pavel Durov, 39 years old, is the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram.
In addition to being Russian, he also has French and Emirati nationality, the country where he currently resides and where Telegram is based, according to the EFE news agency.
Although Durov was born in 1984 in the former Soviet Union, he moved to Italy when he was 4 years old. After living in Italy, the businessman’s family returned to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2006, Durov created a social network called Vkontakte (VK), which was known as the Russian answer to Facebook. This led to him becoming known as the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg”.
How many users does Telegram have?
In 2023, Pavel Durov announced via a message on the messaging app that Telegram had 800 million active users worldwide.
In 2013, when protests against then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych began in Ukraine, the Russian government asked Durov for data on Ukrainian users, and he refused.
“We decided to refuse and that did not sit well with the Russian government,” he told American commentator Tucker Carlson.
Durov eventually resigned as CEO, opening the door for people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to take over VK.
In 2013, Durov decided to create Telegram, his own messaging social network. Telegram’s refusal to compromise on decryption put it at odds with governments around the world, including Russia, at least initially.
In 2018, the Kremlin banned the messaging app, which was censored until 2020 when the ban was lifted. Today, the social network operates without restrictions. Despite the accusations, Durov denied having made any kind of concession to the Russian government to allow it to operate.
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2024-08-29 05:10:39