The owner of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov is now under judicial supervision in France due to an investigation into the failure to moderate potentially criminal content. After the intervention of the prosecutor’s office, more information became known about one of the most secretive businessmen. While the trial continues, RB.RU has collected 20 of the latest facts about Pavel himself and his arrest in Paris.
Author:
https://rb.ru/author/strukova/
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- Pavel Durov, 39, was arrested at Le Bourget airport, accompanied by his beautiful companion Yulia Vlasova, 24, whom Daily Mail sources, perhaps jokingly, called a Mossad agent a few days later.
- According to Channel One, Durov thought he was flying to Paris to have dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, but ended up behind bars.
- Macron has described the arrest of Pavel Durov as a non-political decision, but the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry believes that France acted “on someone’s advice.”
- The billionaire had to pay 5 million euros to be released from prison under “judicial supervision” but is banned from leaving France.
- After his arrest, it turned out that Durov, a native of Leningrad, is simultaneously a citizen of four countries: Russia, the state. Saint Kitts and Nevisfound in the Caribbean islands, France and the United Arab Emirates.
- After the establishment of judicial supervision, Durov’s passports from all countries were confiscated.
- Shortly before his arrest in France, Durov claimed that he has 100 biological children, as he is a donor.
- In addition to the case involving the administration of Telegram, Pavel Durov was accused of using violence against his own son by his common-law wife, Irina Bolgar.
- In Switzerland, Pavel Durov, who is currently in the Paris dungeons, was deprived of parental authority over three of the five known children.
- After Durov’s arrest, Komsomolskaya Pravda discovered that he had not visited his elderly father for seven years.
- The intelligence services of France and the United Arab Emirates hacked the businessman’s phone in 2017 as part of Operation Purple Music due to militant recruitment on Telegram. Durov, in an interview with Tucker Carslon, called Dubai “a wonderful place where it’s easy to do business.”
- Telegram, a day after the founder’s arrest, said that the platform or its owner are not responsible for the abuse of this platform.
- Politico reported that French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Nikolai Durov, Pavel Durov’s brother, but he lives and works in St. Petersburg. The warrant was issued after a request to identify a child pornography offender went unanswered. Pavel himself called his brother the computer genius who came up with the Telegram code.
- Before moving to the UAE, Pavel Durov lived and worked in San Francisco, where he was attacked by three men, and FBI agents came to visit, after which the businessman left the United States. Durov spoke about this story six months before his arrest in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
- The founder of Telegram said in the same interview that he had given up his ownership and that he owned neither property nor a car.
- Durov could currently face up to 20 years in prison if all charges are upheld in court.
- Elon Musk reacted to Pavel Durov’s arrest with a cruel joke: “Point of view: in Europe in 2030 you will be executed for liking a meme.” Fox News later reported that Durov’s arrest was a warning to Musk himself.
- In his youth, Pavel Durov became famous for throwing folded five thousand dollar bills at airplanes from the window of his office in St. Petersburg.
- In 2024 Forbes estimated Pavel Durov’s fortune at $15.5 billion.
- Telegram ended 2023 with an operating loss of $108 million on revenue of $342 million, the Financial Times reported.
Author:
Ekaterina Strukova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
