Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been accused by French authorities of facilitating criminal activities carried out through the messaging app.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov arrested in France, TON price drops 20%
According to French news agency TF1 , authorities in this country have arrested the founder of the Telegram messaging app, Mr. Pavel Durov , 39 years old, who holds dual Russian, French and UAE citizenship.
Durov was arrested while in transit at Le Bourget airport in Paris, which normally only serves private flights.
It is known that France has issued an arrest warrant for Pavel Durov on charges of aiding and abetting criminal activities such as terrorism, fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, dissipation of stolen property, dissemination of child pornography, etc. while operating the Telegram application without censorship or blocking measures.
TF1 news agency also added that Mr. Durov rarely goes to Europe because he knows there is an arrest warrant for him, so it is speculated that the Telegram founder may have made a big mistake by going to Paris.
French prosecutors have announced that Pavel Durov will be held in pretrial detention. The Telegram founder faces up to 20 years in prison.
Pavel Durov is one of the influential people in the global technology industry but is little known because of his secretive lifestyle. He is the founder of the social network VK, which is considered the Facebook of Russia. After refusing to provide user information to the government, he was forced to sell VK to someone else and move abroad to live in exile, specifically to the UAE. After that, he devoted himself to developing the Telegram application, reaching the milestone of 900 million users at the present time.
According to Forbes estimates, Pavel Durov has a fortune of up to 15.5 billion USD. The founder of Telegram also revealed that he has invested in Bitcoin for the past 10 years , and in recent years has continuously integrated cryptocurrencies into his application such as supporting the TON blockchain , supporting crypto wallets and mini app stores about Web3 games.
TON blockchain - a cryptocurrency project closely related to Telegram - issued a statement supporting Mr. Durov, promoting freedom of speech and decentralization, as well as affirming that TON will continue to operate normally and is not affected by the above information.
Statement from the TON Community
— TON 💎 (@ton_blockchain) August 24, 2024
Following the recent news related to the Telegram's founder Pavel Durov, we want to assure everyone that the TON community remains strong and fully operational.
As a community committed to freedom of speech and decentralization, we stand firmly…
A Russian official called the arrest politically motivated, as Telegram is a messaging app used by both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict to fight on the media front.
Many other famous figures also made statements in support of Pavel Durov and against the actions of the French government, including billionaire Elon Musk .
POV: It's 2030 in Europe and you're being executed for liking a meme https://t.co/OkZ6YS3u2P
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2024
Meanwhile, Pantera Capital fund manager posted a simple message: "Free Pavel." Pantera Capital is one of the leading VCs in the crypto market, just in May this year announced that it had made the "largest investment in history" in TON .
— Franklin Bi (@FranklinBi) August 24, 2024
TON price dropped 20% from $6.8 to $5.4 after news of Pavel Durov's arrest, before recovering slightly to $5.8 at the time of writing.
1h chart of TON/ USDT pair on Binance exchange at 09:25 AM on August 25, 2024
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