Co-founder and Chief Executive of the Telegram app Pavel Durov was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening. According to the TF1 report, the co-founder of the messaging app was about to board his private jet when the arrest was made with an arrest warrant.
As per the reports, the 39-year-old billionaire was travelling from Azerbaijan and was arrested around 8 pm (local time). The Russian-born tech mogul lives in Dubai, where the messaging app is based, and holds dual citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates.
Russian embassy looked into the matter
As per an estimation by Forbes, the Russian entrepreneur has a fortune of a whopping $15.5 billion. Durov left Russia back in 2014 after he refused to comply with the Russian government’s demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform. However, the billionaire eventually sold the platform.
Telegram has yet to respond. Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in France is taking “immediate steps” to clarify the situation. According to Russian news outlet Tass, the country’s embassy has received no appeals from Durov’s team but is “proactively taking immediate steps.”
Durov and his brother Nikolai founded the famous messaging app back in 2013. Over the years, Telegram has acquired over 900 million active users. It emerged as an alternative to Meta’s Whatsapp, providing end-to-end encrypted messaging. Users can also set up “channels” to disseminate information quickly to followers.
Interestingly, Telegram was banned in Russia in 2018 after Durov refused to hand over user data to the government. However, the ban was reversed in 2021.
Why was he arrested?
According to TF1, Durov was arrested due to Telegram’s lack of moderation, cooperation with law enforcement, and the tools the app offers. According to the reports, the French authorities believe that the app’s access to malicious elements makes it an “accomplice in drug trafficking, pedo criminal offenses, and fraud.”
It is important to note that the arrest warrant under which the billionaire was arrested was only valid if he entered the national territory. “He made a blunder this evening. We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody!”, a source close to the investigation told TF1. The French news outlets stated that Durov knew of the looming arrest warrant.
The co-founder will now be presented to an investigating judge before a possible indictment over a multitude of offenses: terrorism, narcotics, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, pedo criminal content, etc. According to TF1, the indictment can take place by Sunday.
“Pavel Durov will end up in pretrial detention, that’s for sure,” one of the commentators told the French news outlet. “On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offenses and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,” he added.
