Telegram founder Durov on arrest, detention in France: ‘I’m confused’
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Pavel Durov’s first since being indicted on six charges in 2024, said his company did nothing wrong.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov is still trying to figure out why he was detained in France last August, though the motives may have been political and tied to authorities’ efforts to crack down on alleged illicit activity on the messaging platform.
That was one of the key takeaways from Durov’s interview with Tucker Carlson, which premiered Tuesday on YouTube.
In his first interview since his Aug. 24, 2024, arrest at Bourget Airport outside Paris, Durov said French authorities appeared primarily interested in how Telegram works — “as if it’s some kind of mystery,” he quipped.
YouTube
“[W]e’re a big company, we are audited by a Big Four accounting firm, we work with the biggest financial institutions [...] we spend millions of dollars every quarter on legal compliance [...] to make sure we don’t violate laws anywhere and we operate in almost 200 countries,” said Durov.
“So it was very confusing for me to get detained in Paris and learn that Telegram did something wrong or didn’t process some requests,” he said.
Durov was indicted on six charges by French prosecutors in August 2024 for alleged complicity in criminal activity, refusing to respond to French authorities, money laundering, criminal association, providing crypto services without proper declaration, and involvement in the spread of illicit content allegedly facilitated by Telegram’s limited moderation. At the time, prosecutors said he could face up to 10 years in prison.
