Paris (France), August 25: The founder of the messaging app Telegram, Paul Durov, who had an arrest warrant against him, was arrested by French authorities at an airport outside Paris, CNN reported.
According to CNN affiliate BFMTV, officials from the French Customs Anti-Fraud Office arrested the French-Russian billionaire on Saturday evening after he arrived at Bourget Airport on a flight from Azerbaijan.
Durov, 39, was wanted on a French arrest warrant because Telegram lacked moderation and the platform was therefore allegedly misused for money laundering, drug trafficking and the distribution of paedophile content.
According to BFMTV, the Telegram founder has not traveled regularly to France and Europe since the arrest warrant was issued.
In particular, France has issued an arrest warrant for Durov, accusing him of aiding and abetting drug trafficking, crimes against children and fraud, as Telegram lacks moderation and he does not cooperate with law enforcement, the Moscow Times reported, citing French local media.
The Russian-born founder of Telegram, which he says has over 900 million users, currently lives in Dubai. He became a French citizen in August 2021.
Durov, who is also the founder of the social network VKontakte, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to share VKontakte users’ data with Russian intelligence services. Russia later tried unsuccessfully to block Telegram for refusing to provide intelligence services with users’ online communications.
Telegram is widely used by Russian speakers. It has become a major platform for sharing information about the war in Ukraine and is reportedly also used by the Russian military to communicate.
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