Rosenberg against the Durov brothers: What's new?

Pavel Merzlikin went to the courts in two cases, which became known from the former top manager of VKontakte

On September 18, Anton Rosenberg, who calls himself the former technical director of VKontakte and the former director of special directions in Telegram, published a post on a medium in which he spoke about his conflict with Nikolai and Pavel Durovs - brothers founded social network and messenger. Rosenberg is trying to challenge in court his dismissal from LLC Telegraph, which, according to him, is controlled by Pavel Durov; At the same time, the company Telegraph, in turn, plans to recover 100 million rubles from Rosenberg for the disclosure of commercial secrets. On September 19, meetings in St. Petersburg ships were held on both claims. The Medusa correspondent Pavel Merzlikin visited them - and says that new has become known about the conflict.

Rosenberg against Telegraph

“Pavel Durov wants 100 million rubles from me,” - so Anton Rosenberg began his post on Facebook, published on September 18; And he attached a publication on a medium dedicated to the conflict with the Durov brothers. The next day, September 19, in the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg, Rosenberg’s lawsuit against LLC Telegraph was considered-a company where, according to Rosenberg, Russian employees of Telegram worked, and from where he himself was fired after the conflict with his brother Pavel Durov Nikolai. Rosenberg himself believes that this happened illegally.

Before the meeting, Rosenberg, who was preparing to dispute his dismissal, Pavel Durov mentioned only a couple of times. He said that he considers the position of the creator of Telegram - on Monday, Durov told Medusa that Rosenberg had nothing to do with the Telegram team and he knows nothing about his dismissal. Moreover, Pavel Durov said that he “heard Rosenberg from the family, that he“ suffers from mental illness ”.

“Naturally, I have no diagnosis. For several years now I have had a resolution to weapons, I would simply not have been given it, ”Rosenberg insisted in an interview with the Medusa correspondent. He added that he was on friendly relations with Paul and Nikolai, and such an attitude to him is “very offensive”.

Rosenberg came to the court session in a branded T -shirt of a tourist club of students of St. Petersburg State University (Nikolai Durov and Anton Rosenberg are mentioned as classmates, for example, here ); Before the trial, with a smile, he told reporters about his hobbies (news, literature, mountain tourism, gardening) and generally kept calmly. He only admitted that he did not count on such a resonance: “I did not write anything completely new - what, for example, people in the industry would not know, or would not be published in the media” (this is cunning: the post, if he is true, contains many previously unknown details about the life of the Durov brothers, including private and clearly not intended for the public).

Neither Pavel nor Nikolai was written after the publication of the post, says Rosenberg. But potential employers contacted him. Among them are companies that created and develop other messengers (Rosenberg did not mention the names). Representatives of the special services, who have long been interested in Telegram, were not associated with Rosenberg, according to him.

The plaintiff spoke impassive, sometimes with a smile about all the circumstances of the conflict with the Durov brothers. The only thing that the former technical director of VKontakte did not want to talk about is Rosenberg about the role in this story of his wife (in the post on the medium, he claims that his dismissal from Telegram was caused by a personal conflict with Nikolai Durov, who rendered the girl's attention signs). “Now I am considering this as a labor dispute about my dismissal. I would not want to draw into this wife. It’s just that in my article I could not at least briefly mention this moment, otherwise it would not be clear what kind of conflict we are talking about, ”he explained his position. Rosenberg also confirmed that his wife, like him, worked at Telegraph LLC, but refused to clarify whether she was still working there. The wife of Anton Rosenberg Catherine on September 19 told RBC that "she read the article [on the medium] and agrees with its content."

But Rosenberg talked a lot about the activities of LLC Telegraph. According to him, at least until recently, all its employees were engaged in the development of the Telegram messenger. Rosenberg himself served as director in special directions and was responsible for automating the fight against spam in the messenger. Rosenberg refused to name the total number of employees of Telegraph, but emphasized that he also does not know about other companies where there are also many Telegram developers. The key decisions in the Telegraph, according to Rosenberg, were also made by Pavel Durov, including the decision to dismiss Rosenberg himself from Telegraph LLC.

This company is associated with Telegram developers. One of the founders of the British Telegram Messenger LLP, which loaded the Telegram messenger into app stores is Telegraph Inc, registered in Belize. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the same Telegraph Inc owns LLC Telegraph. At the same time, Pavel Durov declared Medusa that now Telegraph and Telegram Messenger LLP are in no way connected; Previously, Telegram, according to Durov, conveyed to this LLC to outsources “analysis of Russian -speaking spam”.

On September 19, the third meeting was held in the case - but the first, where the essence of the claim was discussed. At the previous meeting, Rosenberg’s lawyer Yuri Golovin staged a call to Pavel Durov's witness; However, the lawyers of LLC Telegraph said that Durov has nothing to do with the company.

Rosenberg said that Telegraph LLC was based in the Zinger house in the center of St. Petersburg-in the same building where the headquarters of VKontakte is located. According to Rosenberg, Nikolai Durov also worked there. It was not necessary to constantly present in the office - it is enough to fulfill their tasks in time.

Formally, Rosenberg was fired from Telegraph LLC just because he allegedly skipped and did not appear in the office for 19 consecutive days. He himself denies it; Rosenberg provided the court with screenshots of his correspondence, which prove that he was at work in all "walking" days. He says that his goal is to prove to the court that he was fired illegally, and ideally he generally wants to get a position back. “I want to continue to work. Everything was fine in Telegram, ”he emphasized.

Rosenberg requires his employer one and a half million rubles-this amount includes compensation for moral damage of 60 thousand rubles (according to Rosenberg, upon dismissal, he survived a lot of stress and consulted a doctor), salary arrears formed in March-April 2017 and a salary that he had not received since April 2017. The amount of claims is constantly growing, since the amount of the under -received salary is increasing - initially Rosenberg demanded to pay him about 460 thousand rubles.

He says that he is ready to peacefully settle the situation if he is returned to his position, and Pavel Durov will write a post in social networks that the whole scandal was caused by personal conflict, and not the professional qualities of Rosenberg.

Rosenberg also said that he was also ready for a settlement agreement without a return of a position. He confirmed Medusa that he invited the Telegraph to pay him 30 million rubles so that he would withdraw the lawsuit. “It was an emotional reaction to dismissal. Of course, I did not expect that they would pay me so much. I just wanted to hear at least some proposal on their part. But the only thing I heard was 100 rubles from their lawyer before one of the meetings, ”he said; Rosenberg believes that it was a joke.

After his performance, the meeting ended: the lawyers of the Telegraph simply did not come to him. Like witnesses - employees of Telegraph, who allegedly declared Rosenberg's absenteeism. The next meeting in this claim will be held on October 24.

"Telegraph" against Rosenberg

On September 19, the oncoming lawsuit of LLC Telegraph against Anton Rosenberg was examined in the Petrodvortsov District Court. The company claims that he disclosed a commercial secret when he indicated on Facebook by his place of work the site Telegram.org, where you can download the messenger. In addition, he submitted to the court, where he disputes his dismissal, notarized screenshots of working correspondence.

The lawsuit of LLC Telegraph claims that, due to these actions, Telegram Messenger LLP tore an employment contract with it-and requires compensating for 100 million rubles of missed benefits from failed cooperation. “I think this lawsuit is an emotional response measure for my lawsuit,” says Rosenberg. His lawyer Yuri Golovin insists that Telegraph LLC did not explain how 100 million lost benefits were counted there.

Rosenberg insists that he did not disclose any commercial secret. In his opinion, the company, in principle, cannot file such a lawsuit against him, since he did not sign any formal laws of agreements on commercial secrets - only an agreement on hiring, in which there were points on non -disclosure of certain details of the company.

Before the court hearing, Rosenberg again explained to reporters that he did not seek and did not want to disclose any secrets of the messenger, he does not know anything about the relationship between Telegram and the special services, as well as whether the messenger will monitor user correspondence.

Representatives of Telegraph LLC did not come to this meeting. The next will take place on October 17 and, most likely, will be held closed. The Telegraph LLC will insist on this - the lawsuit says that the court may be announced information that constituted a commercial secret.

Rosenberg noted that he was afraid of such a turn. According to him, the probability of a closed court forced him to write a post on a medium. “A lawsuit for 100 million is already a reason for concern. Well, in a closed process, anything can happen-for example, some documents about non-disclosure that I allegedly signed will appear. I hope this will not happen now, ”he says.

The social network "VKontakte" Rosenberg's conflict with the Durov brothers does not comment. “This is not our war,” Meduza told one of the social networks.

Pavel Merzlikin, St. Petersburg