Paris, Aug 26 (EFE).- Telegram CEO and co-founder Pavel Durov was reportedly arrested in on Saturday night as he was disembarking from his private plane at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, according to local media reports.
The 39-year-old Russian-born billionaire, reportedly holding dual French-UAE citizenship, was detained around 8pm on a French arrest warrant on the basis of a preliminary investigation after arriving from Azerbaijan with his bodyguard and a woman, according to TF1 and BFM TV.
The French justice department maintains that Telegram’s insufficient moderation, its encryption tools and alleged lack of cooperation with police could make Durov an accomplice to criminal activity, the outlets said.
He was due to appear in front of an investigating judge Saturday evening.
“The Russian embassy in immediately took the necessary steps in such cases to clarify the situation around the Russian citizen, despite the absence of an appeal from the businessman’s representatives,” said Russia’s foreign ministry, according to official news agency TASS.
Durov, who Forbes estimates to have a fortune of $15.5bn, left Russia in 2014 after refusing Moscow’s orders to take down pages of opposition groups and figures from his VK social media platform.
Telegram, based in Dubai along with Durov, has more than 950 million s and offers end-to-end messaging encryption, as well as channels to disseminate information to large groups. EFE
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