Judges formally order investigation into Telegram boss

Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, will leave a Paris court on Wednesday.

Judges in France have opened a formal investigation into Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of messaging app Telegram, over alleged abuse of the platform by organised crime gangs.

Durov was placed under judicial supervision and given a bail of 5 million euros ($5.6 million). However, he has not been remanded in custody.

The Russian-born tech leader, who also holds French nationality, must report to a French police station twice a week during the investigation and is not allowed to leave France.

The development follows his arrest on Saturday at an airport north of Paris and four days of questioning over alleged offences related to the Telegram app.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that Durov is being investigated for possible complicity in operating an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions by an organized gang, and for allegedly refusing to communicate with authorities. He is also being investigated for possible complicity in the organized criminal distribution of sexual images of children.

The fact that a formal investigation is being opened against him does not mean that the authorities consider Durov guilty. However, they believe that there is good reason to open an investigation.

According to Durov’s lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski, Telegram, which was founded in 2013, consistently complies with European digital laws and regulations and is monitored in the same way as all other social media networks.

He said his client was not involved in “criminal acts which do not directly or indirectly concern him”, the BBC reported.

Telegram, headquartered in Dubai, allows groups of up to 200,000 people to share and comment on information, a much larger scale than rivals such as WhatsApp, which typically caps the number of participants at around 1,000.

Some Telegram users choose to send encrypted messages that can only be seen by the sender and recipient. The app has about 950 million registered users and is popular in Russia and Ukraine.

Act of intimidation

According to Telegram, the company and its founder have “nothing to hide,” while the Russian government said the investigation could be seen as an act of “intimidation” against the company for political purposes.

The BBC quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying: “Given (Durov’s) Russian citizenship, we are ready to provide all necessary help and assistance. But here the situation is complicated by the fact that he is also a French citizen.”

Durov left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands that app-blocking groups oppose him. He subsequently obtained French citizenship in 2021 and has also become a citizen of the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates.

His arrest led to a protest at the French embassy in Moscow last weekend.

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