Paris Judicial Court Reveals Charges Against Pavel Durov, Includes Money Laundering, Fraud

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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August 26, 2024

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The Paris Judicial Court (Tribunal Judiciaire De Paris) has released a list of 12 potential charges against the Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, on Monday.

Some of the “complicity” charges include the distribution of child pornography, sale of narcotics, and organized fraud and money laundering.

Per the prosecutor’s official release, the administration of the online platform enabled illicit transaction in an organized group. Further, the platform refused to communicate, upon requests from authorities.

Durov was also charged for possessing images of underage pornography and circulating the images.

Durov Charged With Providing Cryptology Tools to Telegram Users

Additionally, three counts of charges noted that Durov provided Telegram users with access to cryptology tools and services. He provided means of cryptology without receiving proper government authorization, it added.

The prosecutors said that with the nature of these potential charges, they would keep Durov in custody until Wednesday.

Police arrested Pavel Durov on Saturday August 24, 2024 at Bourget airport outside Paris. Initially, reports hinted at issues related to Telegram’s content moderation practices in connection with his arrest. However, lack of official charges led to a wide-spread speculation across the industry at the time.

TON Drops After Durov’s Arrest in Paris

The price of Toncoin (TON), the digital asset from a blockchain project linked to Telegram, tumbled soon after Durov’s arrest. TON lost $2.7 billion in market value, falling out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, according to CoinMarketCap. The coin is currently down 21.47% over the past week and is trading at $5.38 at press time.

The list of charges by Paris prosecutors’ office, comes as part of a judicial investigation opened on July 8, 2024, following a preliminary initiative investigation, the release read.

“The investigating magistrates responsible for this judicial information have jointly requested the center for the fight against digital crime (C3N) and the national anti-fraud office (ONAF) to continue the investigations.”