Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, was formally investigated in France on wide-ranging criminal charges on Thursday after being detained in police custody for four days.
He was also released from custody on the condition that he not leave French territory during the investigation. His bail has been set at 5 million euros (about $5.6 million) and he must report to a police station twice a week.
On Tuesday, the court in charge of the investigation – the Paris Criminal Court – published a list of the charges that led to Durov's arrest on August 24 after disembarking from a private jet at France's Le Bourget airport.
The main charges are operating a company involved in the storage and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), aiding and abetting drug trafficking, and aiding and abetting organized fraud and other illegal transactions. He also faces criminal charges relating to his registration of Telegram's encryption features.
Paris prosecutor Laure Becqueau said in a statement that all the charges had been admitted and that the investigation was moving forward. The fact that Durov has been placed under formal investigation means that he is now officially under suspicion of the crimes he has been accused of.
In the French justice system, undergoing a formal investigation is a necessary procedural step to bring a case to trial. But it doesn't mean a trial is certain: if authorities decide there isn't enough evidence, the investigation could be shelved before it goes to trial. But the step means there is sufficient reason to continue the investigation.
The prosecutor's statement (translated from French) summarised the reasons why Durov was in police custody, with Beccau writing that Telegram “has featured in several cases involving various crimes (child pornography, human trafficking and online hate speech).”
“Telegram's almost complete failure to comply with judicial requests has attracted the attention of the Cybercrime Unit (J3) of the Paris Prosecutor's Office's National Court for Organized Crime (JUNALCO), and in particular the National Office for Minors (OFMIN),” she wrote.
“When consulted, other French investigative departments and prosecutors' offices, as well as Eurojust's various partners, especially our Belgian partner, shared the same view. This has led JUNALCO to open an investigation into the possible criminal responsibility of executives of this messaging service for these crimes,” Becquod added.
The Paris court then opened a preliminary investigation in February 2024 and appointed OFMIN as head of the investigation. The Cybercrime Combat Centre (C3N) and the National Office for Combating Fraud (ONAF) then took over the investigation.
The account appears to confirm a Politico report that Durov's problems stemmed from a separate investigation focused on child sexual abuse. According to a Politico reporter who had access to documents from that investigation, the suspect told investigators he used Telegram to lure underage girls to send him “homemade child pornography,” then threatened to publish the CSAM on social media.
It was also reported that as part of the case, French authorities had asked Telegram to identify the suspects, but the company ignored the request, leading to a preliminary investigation showing it had no intention of cooperating with law enforcement in criminal cases.
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment on Durov's arrest and the charges he faces.
Lack of content moderation
The case against Telegram was sparked by the CSAM investigation, but became more substantive during the course of a preliminary investigation as French authorities began to investigate the messaging app's activities more broadly.
Telegram currently has 950 million monthly active users and almost no moderation tools or processes. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Durov claimed that there are only 30 engineers working on the social app. So not only is the company unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement, the Paris court is essentially alleging that Telegram's (lack of) moderation allows CSAM sharing, drug trafficking, and fraud to take place on the platform.
“It is completely absurd to claim that the head of a social platform is responsible for criminal acts in which he had no direct or indirect participation,” Durov's lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, told reporters at Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday night local time.
But this defense doesn't explain why Telegram ignored law enforcement requests in the first place.
Additionally, Durov is also facing money laundering charges, which may be related to Telegram's cryptocurrency-related features and failure to comply with “know your customer” requirements.
Telegram has a digital currency called Stars that can be used to purchase digital content from other users. Stars can also be converted into Toncoin, the cryptocurrency supported by Telegram. Toncoin can be traded on various cryptocurrency exchanges or transferred to a bank account.
Due to the scope of the case, the investigation is expected to continue for at least several months, and possibly a year or more, during which time Durov is expected to remain in France.