Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of encrypted messaging service Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport near Paris. The French broadcaster TF1 reports. The thirty-nine-year-old French-Russian was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman.
The arrest, Tf1 continues, was carried out by the airport gendarmerie. Over the head of Durov, who had left Azerbaijan with his private jet, hangs a French search warrant issued by the French National Directorate of Judicial Police on the basis of a preliminary investigation. The judiciary believes that the lack of moderation, cooperation with law enforcement and the tools offered (disposable number, cryptocurrency exchange, etc.) make the platform complicit in the illegal activities that take place there, from drug trafficking to fraud.
The execution of the warrant was conditional on Durov’s presence on French soil. “He made a mistake tonight. We don’t know why… Was it just a stopover? In any case, he was caught!”, a source close to the investigation confided to Tf1. Durov had in fact avoided traveling to Europe as much as possible, where his company is targeted, and was in the habit of traveling to the Emirates, the countries of the former Soviet Union or South America.
Durov He is expected to appear before a judge in the next few hours before a possible indictment tomorrow for a multitude of crimes: terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, juvenile criminal content and so on.
“Pavel Durov will end up in custody, that’s for sure,” another source involved in the investigation comments, “he allowed countless crimes and offences to be committed on his platform and did nothing to moderate or collaborate.” “For years, Telegram has become THE number 1 platform for organised crime,” another source comments. The aim of the operation, explains Tf1, is twofold: on the one hand, to dissuade criminals from continuing to use Telegram for their trafficking, and on the other, to encourage other European countries to increase joint work to combat online content of a terrorist nature exchanged through the service.
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