A tech tycoon faces numerous criminal charges and is prohibited from leaving France, which could have a negative impact on the future of one of the biggest social media companies in the world.
After four days of detention, the millionaire Pavel Durov, the creator and CEO of Telegram, was freed from jail in France despite being officially charged with numerous offenses pertaining to the messaging software.
Durov, 39, was charged on multiple counts of neglecting to remove unlawful and extremist content from the app on Wednesday after appearing before investigating magistrates in Paris.
Durov, 39, a native of Russia, was taken into custody by detectives at Le Bourget airport north of Paris late on Saturday and interrogated over the next few days while detained.
He was granted conditional release against a bail of five million euros and on the condition he must report to a police station twice a week as well as remaining in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
The charges concern alleged crimes involving an organised group including “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction”.
Along with drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and “dissemination in an organized group of images of minors in child pornography,” Durov is also accused of withholding papers that the authorities have requested.
According to a source, he is also being looked into separately for possible “serious acts of violence” against one of his children while he and the boy’s mother, his ex-partner, were in Paris. Last year, she also brought another complaint against Durov to Switzerland.
“Non-political”
Ten years ago, as he was preparing to leave his home country of Russia, the computer magnate established Telegram. With over 900 million users, the app has experienced exponential growth in its user base.
Over the weekend, Telegram maintained that Durov had “nothing to hide” and called it “absurd” that he should be held accountable for offensive material.
Durov is a mysterious man who doesn’t often speak in public. He is a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, France, and Russia, where Telegram is headquartered.
Forbes magazine pegs his net worth at $15.5 billion, despite the fact that he loudly extols the benefits of leading an austere lifestyle that forgoes coffee and ice cream.
The timing and circumstances of Durov’s incarceration have been the subject of many concerns; his fans view him as a champion of free expression, while his adversaries view him as a threat who purposefully allowed Telegram to spiral out of control.
According to a Wednesday article in the newspaper Le Monde, Durov had met French President Emmanuel Macron multiple times before obtaining French nationality in 2021 through a unique process meant only for individuals who are considered to have contributed particularly to France.
According to the Wall Street Journal, over a lunch in 2018, Macron, who had previously been a frequent user of Telegram with his team, proposed that the company’s headquarters be located in Paris. However, Durov declined.
A source close to the investigation has confirmed what originally appeared on Politico: since March of this year, France has been requesting information from Pavel Durov and his older brother Nikolai, a lesser-known individual believed to be the mathematical genius behind Telegram.
Macron stated that Durov’s detention was “in no way a political decision” and that it was “up to the judges to rule” in a post on X that addressed what he described as “false information” about the case.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin in Moscow, stated that “no less serious evidence” was required because the charges were quite serious.
Elon Musk, the CEO of X and another tech billionaire, is one of those endorsing Durov. He has left remarks on social media under the hashtag #FreePavel.
“Almost entirely absent”
Ten years ago, during the setup of Telegram, Durov departed Russia due to a disagreement over ownership of his initial venture, the social network VKontakte.
He entered the nation more than fifty times between 2015 and 2021, according to the VazhnyeIstorii news site, which used intercepted border data.
According to a source close to the case, Durov, who has been headquartered in Dubai recently, traveled from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to Paris and was scheduled to have dinner there.
Telegram has positioned itself as an impartial substitute for US-owned platforms, which have come under fire for abusing users’ private information for profit.
The prosecutor in Paris stated that the French legal authorities had initiated an inquiry in February 2024 after learning of Telegram’s “near total absence of a response” to inquiries from the authorities.
