The name Pavel Durov may not mean anything to you, but this Franco-Russian billionaire and CEO of Telegram was arrested by French authorities this Saturday, as revealed by TF1-LCI.
Aged only 39, he was in fact wanted by several states. for lack of cooperation and complicity in several cases relating to its encrypted messaging.
French-Russian Telegram CEO Arrested in France
Arrested by French authorities at Le Bourget airport, the man was nevertheless avoiding France and several countries where he risked being arrested. His plane was flying from Azerbaijan, and some sources believe that his stopover in France may not have been planned…
The man is accused of a lack of total moderation on its platform, which is said to host many criminalsusing messaging for money laundering, drug trafficking or child sex trafficking content.
Pavel Durov will be taken into custody and probably in pre-trial detention until his eventual trial. The latter will certainly be closely followed, as Europe and Western states have targeted most encrypted messaging services, which escape any possible control by the authorities.
