RUSSIAN-BORN Pavel Durov, founder and owner of popular encrypted messaging appTelegram,hasbeen arrested in France over several charges related to his platform, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. According to multiple reports, he was arrested on several charges which involved alleged spread ofcriminalactivityonTelegram which has about 900 million active users.

 

The billionaire lives inDubai,whereTelegram is based, and holds dual citizenship of France and the UnitedArabEmirates(UAE).An entrepreneurwithatleast$15.5 billioninhiskitty,heleftRussia in 2014 after refusing to complywithGovernmentdemands to ban Opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform. As of August 25, Durov was the 120th richest person in the world, In 2022, he was recognised by Forbes magazine as the richest expat in the UAE. Accordingtoreports,afterleaving Russia, he obtained Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship by donating$250,000tothecountry’s Sugar Industry DiversificationFoundationand secured $300 million in cash within Swiss banks. Thisallowed himtofocuson creating his next company, Telegram. In January 2018, Durov announcedthatina bid to monetise the growing success of Telegram, he was launching the “Gram” cryptocurrency and the TON platform. It raised a total of $1.7 billion from investors.

 

However,hiscryptoventures were halted by the US regulator. In 2018, Russia attempted to block Telegram, after the companyrefusedtocooperate withRussiansecurity services. Durov was arrested by France’s anti-fraud office at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, immediately after exiting his privatejet.Hisarrestwasbased on an arrest warrant issued by the French National Judicial Police as part ofapreliminary investigation.