Telegram’s chief executive indicted, banned from leaving France
Telegram’s chief executive was freed under strict judicial supervision, which includes a prohibition on leaving French territory, payment of a €5 million bail, and reporting to the police station twice a week.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau released a statement on Wednesday evening announcing that Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the encrypted messaging service Telegram, had been indicted in Paris on a long list of organized crime charges by two investigating judges, following four days in police custody.
The 39-year-old businessman was granted bail and kept under strict judicial supervision, including a €5 million bond, biweekly police station reports, and a prohibition on leaving French territory.
A preliminary investigation by the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office’s cybercrime section, which started in February 2024, was followed by the opening of a judicial case on July 8.
Pavel Durov was questioned by gendarmes from the Center for the Fight against Digital Crime and customs officers from the National Anti-Fraud Office after being detained by border police on Saturday night at Le Bourget airport (Seine-Saint-Denis), where his private jet had just landed from Azerbaijan.
Inquiries appear to have centered mostly on the Telegram platform’s regulatory framework—whose CEO takes great satisfaction in ensuring privacy—and the platform’s use for disseminating illicit or juvenile content.
Images of drugs and child pornography
The court case, which was initiated against some unnamed suspects, focuses primarily on the distribution of drugs and child pornography. It also focuses on evidence of money laundering, criminal affiliation, and organized fraud participation. It is “absurd” to think that Pavel Durov couPublic Prosecutor’s Office’shat would be committed via his messaging, his lawyer reacted after his indictment.
The judges suspected the Telegram executives of having refused “to communicate, upon requests from the authorized authorities, the information or documents necessary for the realization and exploitation of interceptions authorized by law.”.
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