Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested on Saturday evening after his private jet landed and pulled onto the tarmac of Le Bourget airport outside Paris, French media TF1 reported.
The price of Toncoin, which was developed by Pavel and brother Nikolai Durov, plummeted following reports of the arrest. At the time of writing it was at $5.75, down 14.0%, according to CoinGecko.
The Russian-born billionaire entrepreneur had flown from Azerbaijan and was accompanied by his bodyguard and a woman.
Durov was arrested on a warrant issued by OFMIN — an arm of the French judicial police — which contends that a lack of moderation and cooperation with law enforcement by Telegram allows drug trafficking, fraud, and child sexual abuse to flourish on the platform, according to TF1.
Durov founded Telegram in 2013 and left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on his VKontakte social media platform, which he sold, according to the BBC.
This arrest warrant was valid only if Durov was on French territory.
Durov knew he was persona non grata in France, and had recently travelled very little in Europe and avoided countries where Telegram is under surveillance.
“He made a blunder tonight. We don’t know why... Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody,” a source close to the investigation told TF1.
Elon Musk posted on X that Durov should be released.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin is down 0.03% today at $64,114.48.
Ethereum is down 0.07% today at $2,760.83.
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