Telegram Founder Arrested in France

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has been arrested in France and placed in custody by agents of France’s National Anti-Fraud Office, according to a report from reputable French news site TF1.

Durov was reportedly arrested after traveling with a woman and his bodyguard from Azerbaijan to Paris’s Le Bourget airport, which exclusively services private jets. Durov was the subject of a search warrant from OFMIN, an investigative agency combating child sexual exploitation in France, based on a preliminary investigation, according to the report.

The news report noted that billionaire Durov typically travels very little in Europe, perhaps to avoid being detained in this way, as his arrest warrant was only valid on French territory. “He made a mistake tonight. We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s locked up,” a source reportedly told TF1 in French.

TF1 predicts that Durov may see an investigating judge on Saturday night before a possible indictment on Sunday for “…multiple offenses: terrorism, drugs, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, pedocriminal content,” and possibly more.

“Pavel Durov will end up in pre-trial detention, that’s certain…on his platform, he allowed countless offenses and crimes to be committed for which he does nothing to moderate or cooperate,” an investigator from France’s National Anti-Fraud Office (ONAF) reportedly told the news site.

The price of Telegram’s native token, Toncoin, has plummeted nearly 12% on the news as of publishing time.

This is a developing story. French translations provided by Anthropic’s Claude AI model.