Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested at Paris airport for alleged offences

By Alfred Cang

French authorities detained the chief executive officer of Telegram, Pavel Durov, at an airport near Paris on Saturday for alleged offenses related to the messaging app, Agence France-Presse reported, citing officials it didn’t identify.
 

Russian-born Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport, the report said, citing one of the officials. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed the arrest in a post on Telegram, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.

The 39-year-old billionaire is suspected of failing to take steps to prevent criminal use of Telegram, AFP said, adding he’s expected to appear in court on Sunday.

Bloomberg News could not independently verify Durov’s arrest. French national police’s duty line person said she had no information of it, while Paris’ police and prosecutor didn’t immediately respond to email requests for comment outside of regular business hours. Telegram didn’t respond to a message seeking comment outside of regular hours.

Russia’s embassy in Paris has taken steps to “clarify the situation” in relation to information of Durov’s detention even though “the businessman’s representatives filed no application” for it to assist, the Tass news agency reported, citing Russia’s foreign ministry. 

Telegram was created by Durov and his brother Nikolai, a programmer and mathematician. It has about 900 million active users and is one of the most popular messaging apps globally. Its relatively light-touch approach to content moderation has led to allegations that it’s frequently used for criminal activity and extremist material.

France’s Ofmin, an agency set up to combat violence against minors, issued an arrest warrant for Durov, AFP said. Ofmin is the coordinating agency in a preliminary probe into alleged offences such as fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime and promotion of terrorism, according to AFP.

Durov lives in Dubai and holds dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France, according to the Telegram website. He has a net worth of over $9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The Durov brothers made their fortune from creating the Russia-based social network VKontakte in 2006. That platform quickly became popular among Russians, making it a target for a billionaire with ties to the Kremlin. Pavel fled the country and sold his stake in VKontakte.