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Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, would have maintained ties with French counterintelligence. He was detained on August 24 but released on bail on August 29.

By Anthony Marcus, correspondent for Eurasia Business News, on August 31, 2024. Article n°1201.

During interrogation in Paris with French police, Pavel Durov said that he maintained ties with French counterintelligence officers and met with them in Dubai, revealed local newspapers. Telegram refused to cooperate with the French authorities, but Durov stressed that it complies with EU laws.

The founder of the Telegram messenger, Pavel Durov, during interrogation in Paris, said that he had maintained ties with representatives of the General Directorate of Internal Security of France (DGSI, counterintelligence), in particular, he met with them in Dubai, the Libération newspaper writes, citing a source.

According to the French newspaper, the Russian-French tech magnate made it clear that “it would be inappropriate for him to disclose information constituting a military secret”. What was discussed, the newspaper did not specify.

The source also said that Durov, in his own words, “as part of the fight against terrorism, has opened an official channel of communication with the DGSI with a hotline and a special email address.“

The exchange of information through these channels made it possible to prevent several terrorist attacks, the source told Liberation.

According to the French newspaper, after his arrest in Paris on August 24 when his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport near Paris, Pavel Durov expressed his readiness to cooperate with French law enforcement agencies and provided them with his mobile phone with an access code to it.

An employee of the French Ministry of Justice told Politico that Telegram refused to cooperate specifically with the French authorities, which caused disappointment in Paris.

Refusal to cooperate with the French authorities is among the charges brought against Pavel Durov in France after his detention. There are six of them in total. Only on charges of complicity in the administration of an online platform for making illegal transactions, the tech magnate faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of € 500,000.

Durov was detained on the evening of August 24 at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, where he flew from Baku on a private jet. Four days later, he was released under judicial supervision and after payment of a € 5 million bail.

In a statement published after Pavel Durov’s detention, Telegram said that the messenger complies with EU laws, and its moderation “meets industry standards and is constantly improving.” The position of the French authorities that the platform or its owner is responsible for abuses in the messenger was called absurd by Telegram.

The Kremlin said it was ready to help Durov, since he still has a Russian passport along with the French one. Consular access to the founder of Telegram was also requested by the UAE, of which he is also a citizen. In addition, Pavel Durov has citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Arrested at the airport Le Bourget on August 24, at 08:00 PM, the French-Russian businessman himself does not admit guilt, and the French President Emmanuel Macron stated that there is no politics in this investigation.

Pavel Durov’s net worth is currently estimated at $15.5 billion as of August 2024. This makes him the 150th wealthiest person in the world.

The EU authorities are also investigating, who believe that Telegram could underestimate the number of users in the EU in order not to comply with the norms for large IT companies, the Financial Times reports. In its reports, Telegram indicated that the messenger has less than 45 million users in the European Union. 

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“The director of Telegram was detained as part of an ongoing judicial investigation,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, apparently meaning that this case is not a personal case agaisnt Mr. Pavel Durov, but a large investigation of various crimes committed by users of the Telegram messenger.

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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article no. 1201.

During his interrogation in Paris, the founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, he allegedly claimed to be in contact with officials from the French Directorate General for Internal Security (DGSI), the Paris-based counter-espionage agency, the French daily newspaper “Liberation” reported, citing sources close to the investigation.

Durov allegedly explained that he had “opened an official communication channel” with the DGSI, as part of operations to counter terrorist activities. Specifically, he had a telephone line and an email address at his disposal from the agency. According to Liberation sources, these communication channels prevented some terrorist attacks. Durov also claimed to have met with officials of the DGSI in Dubai, where he resides.

Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport in Paris on August 24th. According to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, he was arrested for lack of moderation on his instant messaging app, as well as for failing to collaborate in the fight against drug trafficking and the dissemination of child pornography content. The arrest took place “as part of a judicial investigation opened on July 8”, explained the Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the first press release issued by the Paris Prosecutor’s Office on August 26, Durov faces 12 charges, six of which have actually been brought against him at the moment. The first concerns the crime of aiding and abetting in relation to the “operation of an online platform to enable an illegal transaction by an organised gang”. The second refers to the “refusal to communicate or provide, at the request of the authorised authorities, the information and documents necessary to carry out and use the wiretaps authorised by law”. The third and fourth charges concern complicity in relation to the “possession of an image of a minor of a child pornography nature” and the “distribution, offering or organised making available of a pornographic image of a minor”. The fifth refers to drug trafficking, while the sixth concerns the transfer “without legitimate reason of equipment, tools, programs or data designed or adapted to compromise or access the functioning of an automatic data processing system”.

The seventh crime of which the founder of Telegram is accused concerns his alleged complicity in an “organized fraud”, while the eighth would see him guilty of “criminal association aimed at committing a crime or an offense punishable by five years in prison ”. The ninth charge concerns the “laundering” of proceeds deriving from crimes committed “by an organized gang”, while the tenth is related to the “provision of cryptology services to guarantee confidentiality without a declaration of conformity”. The last two charges brought by the French judicial authorities against Durov concern the “supply” and “importation” of a “cryptographic instrument that does not exclusively provide authentication or integrity checking functions without prior declaration”.

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