Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, was arrested by French authorities on Saturday at an airport close to Paris on suspicion of offences relating to the messaging app, according to Agence France-Presse, which quoted unidentified officials.
According to the story, which quoted an official, Durov, a Russian national, was taken into custody at Le Bourget airport. China’s Xinhua News Agency claimed that Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, confirmed the detention in a post on Telegram.
According to AFP, the 39-year-old millionaire is suspected of not taking the necessary precautions to stop illegal use of Telegram, and he is scheduled to appear in court on Sunday.
The arrest of Durov could not be independently confirmed by Bloomberg News. The duty line representative for the French national police denied knowing anything about it, and the prosecutor and police in Paris did not immediately reply to emails seeking comment outside of usual business hours. A message for feedback sent to Telegram outside of business hours received no response.
The Tass news agency, citing Russia’s foreign ministry, stated that despite “the businessman’s representatives filing no application” for it to assist, the Russian embassy in Paris had taken action to “clarify the situation” in relation to reports of Durov’s imprisonment.
Durov and his brother Nikolai, a mathematician and programmer, founded Telegram. With over 900 million active users, it is among the most widely used messaging apps worldwide. Due to its lax content filtering policies, there have been accusations that it is regularly used for extreme and illegal content.
According to AFP, Durov has an arrest warrant out for him from France’s Ofmin, an organisation created to stop violence against kids. According to AFP, Ofmin is in charge of organising a preliminary investigation into charges including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, organised crime, and terrorism propaganda.
According to the Telegram website, Durov resides in Dubai and is a dual citizen of the United Arab Emirates and France. Based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is worth more than $9 billion.
The Durov brothers became wealthy in 2006 when they founded the Russian social network VKontakte. The platform gained popularity among Russians quite rapidly, attracting the attention of a billionaire who had connections to the Kremlin. Pavel sold his interest in VKontakte and left the nation.