Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram, has been released on bail set at 5 million euros (approximately $5.5 million) after being charged in France.
According to a report from the New York Times, French authorities charged him on Wednesday with multiple offenses, including complicity in managing a platform used for illegal transactions and failure to cooperate with law enforcement. He was arrested on Saturday and has been formally charged since then.
Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, stated that Telegram has been linked to several serious crimes, including child exploitation, drug trafficking, and online hate crimes. She noted that Telegram has shown a near-total lack of cooperation with Paris prosecutors’ requests, leading to the charges against Durov. Other legal authorities in France and Europe share these concerns.
The concerns raised by French prosecutors are shared by other legal authorities in France and across Europe, who have also encountered difficulties in obtaining cooperation from Telegram in criminal investigations.
As part of his release, Durov has been ordered not to leave the country and to report to a police station twice a week.
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