Telegram CEO indicted in France

A French court indicted the executive on charges including organizing or enabling illicit transactions

August 28, 2024 04:10 pm

Telegram founder Pavel Durov | TechCrunch/"TechCrunch Disrupt Europe: Berlin 2013″ (CC license)

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was indicted on Wednesday.

The news was first reported by Bloomberg, and said a French court indicted the executive on charges including organizing or enabling illicit transactions.

A previous press release from Aug. 26 lists the charges Durov is facing, including complicity in offering and selling narcotic substances and distributing child pornography. Durov, as the CEO of Telegram, faces the accusations.

French authorities also allege that Durov didn’t aid investigations.

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The earlier press release also says that Durov has already faced interrogations from the French investigators.

Durov, who was arrested in France last week, was placed under judicial supervision. He had previously been in police custody. He is unable to leave France at this time.

The press release also claims that the judicial investigation was opened in early July. A report from Politico on Wednesday claims that French authorities have also sought an arrest warrant for Durov’s brother, Nikolai Durov.

Durov’s arrest over the weekend led to Telegram-linked Toncoin slipping nearly 20%. The network has also faced multiple outages, including one earlier Wednesday.

The outage “appears to be due to heavy load attributed to DOGS token minting. TON Core is working on a solution,” Toncoin said.

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