Cybercrime , Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Social Media

Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Charged by French Court

French authorities charged Telegram CEO and owner Pavel Durov with a slew of offenses including complicity with hacking, child sexual abuse material and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement authority requests for intercepted communications.

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Paris Prosecutor Laue Beccuau said late Wednesday that Durov faces charges that come with a minimum 10-year sentence and a half-million-euro fine, if found guilty.

Durov can avoid pretrial detection by posting a bail payment of 5 million euros and pledging not to leave France. He would have to check in with police twice a week.*

French authorities arrested Durov on Saturday evening after he landed in his private plane at an airport located on the outskirts of Paris. Earlier this week, Beccuau said the cybercrime section of her office in July opened an investigation "against person unnamed" for complicity in hacking, possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material, narcotics sales, and refusal to act on law enforcement requests to intercept communications. Beccuau's office also said it is looking into the provision of cryptographic services "without certified declaration" (see: French Prosecutors Detail Motives for Telegram CEO Arrest).

Telegram said it "abides by EU laws" and that its standard for content moderation "is within industry standards." Durov "has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe," it said.

French authorities also issued a warrant for the arrest of Durov's brother, Nikolai, Politico reported, citing sources familiar with the investigation. French prosecutors issued the warrants after Telegram gave "no answer" to an earlier judicial request to identify a Telegram user, Politico reported. The Durov brothers co-founded Telegram in 2013.

Pavel Durov has touted Telegram as a platform for "freedom of speech." Earlier this year he said it reached 950 million monthly active users.

He is a Russian national who holds citizenship in the United Arab Emirates and France, as well as the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts and Nevis. His arrest has invited criticism of France by the UAE government, which requested consular access to Durov on Tuesday. The Gulf Arab government said it is "closely following the case."

The French government turned down similar requests made by the Russian government immediately after Durov's arrest. "This is a direct attempt to restrict freedom of communication and, one could even say, to directly intimidate the head of a large company," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the Russian news wire Interfax reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron has played down criticism, stating that Durov's arrest was not a "political decision" and that it is "it is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law."

The Russian government in 2018 attempted to block domestic access to Telegram but rescinded the formal ban in 2020, stating that the company had proved its willingness to cooperate on measures combating "terrorism and extremism."

Although it is widely reported that Durov in 2014 fled Moscow for Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered, Russian news outlet iStories reported that he returned to Russian more than 50 times between 2015 and 2021. Durov is also facing criminal charges in Switzerland for alleged physical violence, Forbes reported.

*Updated Aug. 28, 2024 20:54 UTC: This story has been updated throughout.

With reporting from Information Security Media Group's David Perera in Washington, D.C.