French Authorities Charge Telegram Founder Pavel Durov

Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been charged in France for allegedly allowing illegal activity to take place on the popular messaging app.Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau accused Mr. Durov of enabling illegal transactions on Telegram, such as the distribution of child pornography and illegal drugs, and declining to cooperate with law enforcement.Ms. Beccuau said the company has shown a “near-total absence” in the face of investigators’ request for its cooperation and said prosecutors in other European countries have “shared the same observation.”After paying a $5.6 million bail, the Telegram founder has been banned from leaving the country and placed under judicial supervision. The Russian-born billionaire’s legal problems reportedly go beyond the charges he is facing in France. Mr. Durov is also facing civil and criminal complaints in Switzerland filed by his former partner, Irina Bolgar, Forbes reports. The complaints allege the billionaire abused one of the three children he had with Ms. Bolgar. In March 2023, she filed a criminal complaint alleging Mr. Durov harmed his youngest son five times. According to the filing, the abuse took place between 2021 and 2022. However, the Geneva Public Prosecutor’s office declined the case as it was filed over three months after the last allegation of abuse took place. In May 2023, Ms. Bolgar filed an appeal, and the case was revived.Representatives for the tech mogul did not respond to Forbes’ article, and requests for comment from Telegram by the Sun went unanswered.The Agence France Presse cited a “source close to the case” and reported Mr. Durov is being investigated for “serious acts of violence” against his child. Around the same time as the criminal complaint, she filed a civil complaint alleging Mr. Durov had not been paying her $167,500 a month in child support. Mr. Durov and Ms. Bolgar ended their relationship in 2018. Ms. Bolgar claimed he stopped seeing his children in September 2022 and “blocked” her ability to access the child support payments. In April 2023, she sought and was granted sole custody over the children. Mr. Durov — a dual national of both France and the United Arab Emirates — has not publicly acknowledged the three children, and he has claimed he has over 100 biological children from his sperm donations.French officials say he will face “initial questioning and possible indictment.” Officials detained him over the weekend as part of a judicial inquiry launched last month.Mr. Durov, who is a French citizen, is facing allegations that Telegram has been used for child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, fraud, and abetting organized crime. Officials also claim the messaging app declined to share information with investigators when it was required to do so by law. Telegram maintains it complies with European Union laws. The company also insisted it is “absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”Mr. Durov’s arrest has garnered international attention and sparked concerns about free speech protections. Telegram has 900 million users and is used by people in countries with authoritarian governments to communicate due to its lax moderation policies.France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, addressed the arrest and insisted his country is “deeply committed” to freedom of expression. However, he added, “Freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.”

French Authorities Charge Telegram Founder Pavel Durov

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