French admin records reveals that the brothers responsible for the messaging service Telegram had arrest warrants filed for them originally in March 2024.
The announcement was made just hours after a Wall Street Journal article disclosed that Durov’s phone was compromised in 2017, one year before he met with the president of France.
Months before it was first thought, French authorities had filed arrest warrants for co-founder Nikolai Durov and CEO Pavel Durov of Telegram.
The announcement follows hours after it was revealed that French and UAE agents had hacked Durov’s phone in 2017 because they were worried about the messaging app being used by the UAE to plan strikes and recruit operatives.
A year before the CEO of Telegram met with French President Emmanuel Macron to supposedly negotiate Telegram’s transfer to Paris, his phone was hacked.
Arriving from Azerbaijan on August 24, Durov was apprehended at Le Bourget airport, located north of Paris, following his private plane landing.
Durov’s arrest warrant was issued because he refused to comply with the authorities.
There are reports that Telegram’s failure to assist with an earlier inquiry led to the issuance of arrest warrants for Durov and his brother.
The messaging app gave French authorities “no answer” in response to a previous legal request for the identity of a Telegram user.
According to the document Politico saw, the warrants contained allegations including “complicity in possessing, distributing, offering or making available pornographic images of minors, in an organized group.”
The orders were obtained when the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office identified a suspect who was luring girls into delivering “self-produced child pornography” by threatening to post it on social media.
The messaging software is being used by “numerous criminal groups,” according to the arrest request.
Telegram bonds dropped 10% after Durov’s apprehension.
Following the CEO’s arrest, Telegram Group Inc.’s 7% 2026 bonds experienced a significant decrease.
According to Finra statistics, Telegram bonds have dropped more than 10.3% since August 14 and are currently trading at $87.2 as of 12:41 p.m. UTC.
Although Durov has not yet been charged, co-founder and chief technical officer of the financial app Brighty Nikolay Denisenko said that the arrest might portend a concerning attack on creators of privacy-preserving technologies:
“This of course raises concerns about potential government overreach and the broader implications for digital privacy. Either way, user security should always be top of mind, both in terms of privacy and protection from malevolent actors or illicit activity.”