Telegram founder and Chief Executive Office, Pavel Durov charged with app-related violations

Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, was charged on Wednesday with numerous offenses pertaining to the messaging service by the French judiciary. Despite the charges, Durov was granted bail and prohibited from departing the nation.

Durov was given conditional release after an hours-long hearing with two investigating magistrates, subject to a five million euro bond and the requirement that he remain in France and report to a police station twice a week. This was announced in a statement by Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

The accusations include “complicity in the administration of an online platform to enable an illicit transaction,” among other alleged offenses involving an organized organization.

Durov has also been charged with refusing to share documents demanded by authorities as well as “dissemination in an organised group of images of minors in child pornography” as well as drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering.

The prosecutor said that the French judicial authorities had been made aware of the “near total absence of a response” from Telegram to requests from the authorities and had first opened an investigation in February 2024.