According to French news stations TF1 and BFM TV, Telegram’s wealthy CEO and creator Pavel Durov was reportedly arrested on Saturday night at Bourget Airport, which is close to Paris.
According to Reuters, Durov was detained on a French warrant in connection with an initial police inquiry into Telegram’s potential involvement in aiding illegal activity. Durov was departing from Azerbaijan on his private jet.
Remarks from Telegram were not immediately available after Reuters reached out to them. Both the French police and Interior Ministry remained silent.
Durov was travelling from Azerbaijan, according to TF1, and he was taken into custody at about 20:00 (18:00 GMT).
The 39-year-old Franco-Russian Durov was reportedly accompanied by a bodyguard and a woman when the Air Transport Gendarmerie arrested him, according to a different report from Bitcoinnews.com.
After arriving from Azerbaijan, Durov was arrested via a French search warrant obtained by the French judicial police’s OFMIN because he was on the wanted persons list (FPR). The warrant only became active when he entered France. Google Translated from what a source close to the investigation told the news outlet:
He committed a mistake this evening. We’re not sure why. Was this merely a stopover flight? Either way, he’s under arrest!
The National Anti-Fraud Office holds Durov under custody (ONAF). Telegram is accused by French authorities of enabling crimes including fraud, drug trafficking, and terrorism, among other things. The French news site was further informed by a source acquainted with the investigation that:
It continued, “He did nothing to moderate or cooperate for the incalculable number of offences and crimes that were committed on his platform.”
In the wake of the announcement, the price of TONNE fell precipitously. TONNE is down 13% from earlier today’s trading price of $5.96 as of this writing.
In a similar development, American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson discussed his thoughts on X, pointing out how ironic it is that Durov is being held by a Western nation after having previously rejected attempts by the Russian government to regulate his platform.
He wrote, “When the Russian government attempted to take over his social media company, Telegram, Pavel Durov fled the country.” However, Putin wasn’t the one who imprisoned him in the end for permitting the public to use their right to free expression.
“He was imprisoned by a Western nation that was also a fervent supporter of NATO and an ally of the Biden administration.
In an article titled “What is Toncoin (TONNE)” published on August 16, 2024, Atomic Wallet named the Durov brothers as the TON’s proprietors.
The Durov brothers, Nickolai and Pavel, set out to create an efficient blockchain in 2018 in order to serve Telegram’s enormous user base. In this vein, they initiated the GRAMME project subsequent to raising a total of $1.7 billion via a private initial coin offering (ICO)—roughly $5 for every US citizen.
“The white paper and the primary blockchain components were created after the funds were raised. As a test before the major rollout, the Tonne network—formerly known as Gram—was introduced in 2019, the statement stated.
Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after being ordered to close down opposition communities on his sold social networking platform VK, is the founder of Telegram, a company headquartered in Dubai.
Forbes values Durov’s wealth at $15.5 billion. He claimed that while certain governments have tried to exert pressure on him, the app, which currently has 900 million active users, needs to continue to be a “neutral platform” rather than a “player in geopolitics.”