Pavel Durov, billionaire founder and CEO of Telegram, was reportedly detained at Bourget Airport near Paris on Saturday evening, as reported by French news outlets TF1 and BFM TV.
According to Reuters, Durov was detained on a French warrant in connection with an initial police inquiry into Telegram’s potential involvement in aiding illegal activity. Durov was departing from Azerbaijan on his private jet.
Remarks from Telegram were not immediately available when Reuters reached out to them. Both the French police and Interior Ministry remained silent.
Durov was traveling from Azerbaijan, according to TF1, and he was taken into custody at about 20:00 (18:00 GMT).
The 39-year-old Franco-Russian Durov was reportedly accompanied by a bodyguard and a woman when the Air Transport Gendarmerie arrested him, according to a separate report from Bitcoinnews.com.
After arriving from Azerbaijan, Durov was arrested under a French search warrant issued by the French judicial police’s OFMIN because he was on the wanted persons file (FPR). The warrant only became active when he entered France. Google Translated from what a source close to the investigation told the news outlet:
“He made a blunder this evening. We don’t know why … Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody!”
Durov has been detained by the National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF). French authorities accuse Telegram of facilitating crimes such as terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and fraud, among others. A source familiar with the investigation further told the French news outlet:
“On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,” it added.
In the wake of the announcement, the price of TON fell precipitously. TON is down 13% from earlier today’s trading price of $5.96 as of this writing.
In a related development, American conservative commentator Tucker Carlson expressed his views on X, noting the irony that Durov, who once defied the Russian government’s attempts to control his platform, has now been detained by a Western country.
He posted, “Pavel Durov left Russia when the government tried to control his social media company, Telegram. But in the end, it wasn’t Putin who arrested him for allowing the public to exercise free speech.
“It was a Western country, a Biden administration ally and enthusiastic NATO member, that locked him away.
“Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world.”
Atomic Wallet on its website linked the TON ownership to the Durov brothers, an August 16, 2024 piece titled, “What is Toncoin (TON)”
“In 2018, the Durov brothers, Nickolai and Pavel, aimed for an effective blockchain to support the massive users on Telegram. Along these lines, they launched a GRAM project after a total sum of $1.7 billion (about $5 per person in the US) was raised through a private ICO.
“After the money had been raised, the main components of the blockchain, together with the white paper, were developed. In 2019, the Ton network, previously known as Gram, was launched as a test in preparation for the main launch,” it wrote.
