Pavel Durov charged in France with aiding and abetting criminal activities

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov charged in France with aiding and abetting criminal activities

Pierluigi Paganini
29 August 2024

French prosecutors have charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with facilitating various criminal activities on the messaging platform.

French prosecutors have formally filed charges against Telegram CEO Pavel Durov for supporting various criminal activities on the platform, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), facilitating organized crime, illegal transactions, drug trafficking, and fraud. Following his arrest, authorities announced an official investigation against Durov.

Durov was charged and released by the French authorities under judicial supervision, but with a ban on leaving French territory.

The Telegram CEO spent more than eighty hours in police custody before being charged on Wednesday, August 28, with twelve offenses, including “complicity in the management of an online platform to facilitate illegal transactions as part of an organized gang,” refusal to provide necessary information for lawful wiretapping, “complicity in the distribution of child pornography by an organized gang,” drug trafficking, fraud, criminal association, and money laundering by an organized gang. Durov has been placed under judicial supervision and is prohibited from leaving French territory.

Pavel Durov was also “placed under judicial supervision, including the obligation to post bail of five million euros, to report to the police twice a week and a ban on leaving French territory,” the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.

Durov was charged with refusing to provide information required by authorities for legal surveillance operations. To avoid pre-trial detention, Durov must post a €5 million bail, is not allowed to leave France, and must report to authorities twice a week. The arrest is linked to a judicial investigation launched in France in July 2024, focusing on Telegram's lack of moderation, which has allowed extremist and malicious activity to spread on the platform.

Pavel Durov faces additional charges related to the provision and handling of cryptographic services and tools. One of the charges relates to providing cryptographic services specifically designed to ensure confidentiality without obtaining the required compliance statement. This charge suggests that Durov may have enabled or permitted the use of encryption services that circumvent regulatory requirements set by authorities and potentially enable secure communications that are difficult for law enforcement to monitor.

Another allegation against Durov concerns the supply and import of cryptographic means not exclusively used for authentication or integrity control, again without the required prior declaration. This allegation implies that Durov is accused of importing or providing encryption tools that go beyond basic security functions and potentially enable more complex or opaque forms of communication, without complying with the legal protocols for such technologies.

Telegram defined it as absurd to “claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for the abuse of that platform.” The company emphasized its commitment and efforts to ban groups and channels related to child abuse.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal also revealed that Durov had lunch with the French president six years ago, underscoring his importance on the world stage. However, the year before, his phone was hacked by spies from France and the United Arab Emirates, suggesting he was both courted and targeted by governments because of his influence and the platform's role in global communications.

“In 2017, the year before the Macron meeting, French spies targeted Durov in a joint operation with the United Arab Emirates that hacked his iPhone, according to people familiar with the matter. The spying operation, also previously unreported, was codenamed “Purple Music,” the people said. French security officials were extremely concerned that the Islamic State was using Telegram to recruit operatives and plan attacks..” reported The Wall Street Journal. “Governments have taken notice of Durov because his app attracts a wide range of groups, from pro-democracy protesters and dissidents to Islamist militants, drug traffickers and cybercriminals.”

The Financial Times revealed: “The EU is investigating whether Telegram violated EU digital rules by failing to disclose accurate user numbers, while officials push for tighter oversight of the controversial messaging app.”

“EU legal and data experts suspect that the app underestimated its presence in the EU in order to stay below the 45 million user limit. Above this limit, large online platforms are subject to a series of Brussels regulations designed to limit their influence.”

Pierluigi Paganini

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(Security scandals – Hacking, Telegram)