Telegram chief Durov charged in France, prosecutor says

Founder of chat platform released on bail but banned from leaving country

Pavel was detained in France for days over claims that the messaging service failed to properly fight crime on the app. Bloomberg

France on Wednesday charged Pavel Durov, the founder and chief executive of Telegram, with offences related to the messaging app and banned him from leaving the country, while allowing the billionaire to walk free after four days under arrest.

Mr Durov, 39, was charged on several counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on the app after a hearing with investigating magistrates in Paris.

The Russian-born executive was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris late on Saturday and questioned by investigators.

He was granted release with a bail of €5 million ($5.5 million) and on the condition he must report to a police station twice a week, and stay in France, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.

The charges concern alleged crimes involving an organised group, including “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction”.

Mr Durov has also been charged with refusing to share documents demanded by authorities, and “dissemination in an organised group of images of minors in child pornography”, as well as drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering.

He is also being investigated on suspicion of “serious acts of violence” towards one of his children while he and a former partner, the boy's mother, were in Paris, a source said.

She also filed another complaint against Mr Durov in Switzerland last year.

The tech mogul founded Telegram as he was in the process of quitting his native Russia a decade ago. Its growth has been exponential, with the app now reporting more than 900 million users.

Telegram at the weekend insisted that Mr Durov had “nothing to hide” and said it was “absurd” that he should be held responsible for inappropriate content.

An enigmatic figure who rarely speaks in public, he is a citizen of Russia, France and the UAE, where Telegram is based.

Forbes magazine estimates his current fortune at $15.5 billion, although he proudly promotes the virtues of an ascetic life that includes ice baths and abstaining from alcohol or coffee.

Many questions have been raised about the timing and circumstances of Mr Durov's detention, among supporters who regard him as a champion of freedom of speech, and detractors as a menace who wilfully allowed Telegram to get out of control.

Le Monde reported on Wednesday that Mr Durov had met French President Emmanuel Macron several times before receiving French nationality in 2021, through a special procedure reserved for those deemed to have made a special contribution to France.

The Wall Street Journal said that at one lunch in 2018, Mr Macron – who along with his team was in the past an avid user of Telegram – had suggested it should be based in Paris, but Mr Durov refused.

According to a source close to the case, confirming a story first published on Politico, Mr Durov and his elder brother Nikolai, a lower-profile figure seen as the mathematical brain behind Telegram, have been wanted by France since March.

In a post on X to address what he called “false information” concerning the case, Mr Macron said Mr Durov's arrest was “in no way a political decision” and it was “up to the judges to rule”.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the charges were very serious and thus needed “no less serious evidence”.

Among those voicing support for Mr Durov is fellow tech tycoon and chief executive of X, Elon Musk, who has posted comments under the hashtag #FreePavel.

Mr Durov left Russia a decade ago as he was setting up Telegram amid an ownership dispute over his first project, the Russian social network VKontakte.

But his departure from Russia was reportedly not an abrupt exile. According to the Vazhnye Istorii news site, quoting leaked border data, he visited the country more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021.

Mr Durov, who has been based in Dubai in recent years, arrived in Paris from the Azerbaijani capital Baku and was planning to have dinner in the French capital, a source said.

Telegram has placed itself as a “neutral” alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticised for their commercial exploitation of users' personal data.

It has also played a key role since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, used actively by politicians and commentators on both sides of the war.

The Paris prosecutor said that the French judicial authorities had been made aware of the “near total absence of a response” from Telegram to requests from the authorities, and first opened an investigation in February 2024.