Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained in judicial investigation involving 12 criminal counts, French prosecutors say

The investigation that led to the recent detention of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov this past Saturday was originally opened on July 8, 2024 against an “unnamed person.” It involved suspicion on 12 counts, including refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, complicity in drug distribution, child pornography, cybercrime, and fraud, according to a statement from the French public prosecutor's office released earlier today.

“Pavel Durov, founder and director of the Telegram instant messaging platform, was arrested and placed in police custody at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 24, 2024 at Le Bourget [airport]. This measure was taken as part of a judicial investigation opened on July 8, 2024, following a preliminary investigation initiated by the J3 section (JUNALCO — National Jurisdiction for Combating Organized Crime) of the Paris public prosecutor's office,” the statement read.

The charges against the “unnamed person” in the case include:

• Complicity in administering an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions within an organized group.
• Refusal to provide information or documents necessary for lawful interceptions at the request of competent authorities.
• Complicity in the possession of pornographic images of minors.
• Complicity in distributing, offering, or providing pornographic images of minors within an organized group.
• Complicity in the purchase, transportation, possession, offer, or sale of narcotic substances.
• Complicity in offering, selling, or providing, without lawful justification, equipment, tools, programs, or data designed to gain unauthorized access to and impair the operation of automated data processing systems.
• Complicity in organized group fraud.
• Criminal conspiracy to commit a crime or offense punishable by five or more years of imprisonment.
• Laundering proceeds from crimes or offenses committed by an organized group.
• Providing cryptographic services for privacy without a certified statement.
• Providing a cryptographic tool that does not exclusively offer authentication or integrity control without a prior declaration.
• Importing a cryptographic tool that provides authentication or integrity control without a prior declaration.

Durov notably holds multiple passports. He is a citizen of France, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis. The independent Russian publication Agentstvo.Novosti, citing data from Russian government services portal Gosuslugi, reported on Sunday that Durov still holds a valid Russian passport.

In mid-April 2022 — several months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — Durov asked Forbes not to call him a Russian billionaire, joining the likes of Revolut co-founder Nikolay Storonsky, tech investor Yuri Milner, and Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh. “Pavel left Russia many years ago with no intention to return,” his spokesperson told the publication.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier today told reporters that the Kremlin “does not know what exactly Durov is accused of,” which meant “it would be wrong to make any statements,” as per a report by the Russian news agency Interfax.

“We haven't heard any official statements to that effect yet. And before saying anything, we need to wait for the situation to be clarified: what exactly they are trying to charge Durov [with],” Peskov said.

He added that Vladimir Putin did not meet with Durov during his recent visit to Azerbaijan. Earlier, the Telegram channel Baza, which is reportedly affiliated with the Russian authorities, quoted a source as saying that the Russian president refused to meet with the Telegram founder while in Baku.

In a statement published on X on August 26, French President Emmanuel Macron took the position that Durov's detention was not politically motivated:

“The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter.”

Macron’s tweet also stressed that “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so.”

However, Macron did not specify the exact nature of French law enforcement's concerns regarding the Telegram founder. Durov was detained at the Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday. The arrest reportedly came in connection to the lack of moderation on Telegram and the platform's refusal to cooperate with French security services.

Pavel Durov, alongside his brother Nikolai, launched Telegram in August 2013, with Nikolai responsible for developing the technology behind the cloud-based messaging platform. Telegram, headquartered in Dubai, now boasts over 950 million active users worldwide, according to the company. Forbes estimates Pavel Durov's net worth at $15 billion.

The platform remains among the few avenues available to Russian citizens looking to bypass government censorship amid an increasingly stringent crackdown on the country’s information space.

Telegram is also extensively used by the Russian military for its internal communications, and the arrest of its founder led to a flurry of angered reactions among pro-war bloggers, including Alexander Sladkov.

“Pavel Durov was arrested. This attack on the owner of [Telegram], on which half of the communications in the [war] are held, was expected. Now we urgently need to create a Russian military messenger,” Sladkov wrote.

The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, founded by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee of Russia's Defense Ministry, similarly noted that Telegram “has now become almost the main means of controlling units in the [special military operation] zone.”

“It will be very sad and funny at the same time if it is Pavel Durov's arrest that will be the catalyst for changes in the approaches to communication and control means in the Russian Armed Forces. And not the purely military problems that have piled up over the past two years, which for some reason [the Russian Defense Ministry] preferred to turn a blind eye to.”

Cover image: A screenshot from Durov’s April 2024 interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Source: YouTube / Tucker Carlson