How France embraced Telegram’s Pavel Durov — before turning on him

Accustomed to mixing with the nation’s elite, the tech billionaire says he was surprised to be targeted by its legal system. Emmanuel Macron has now to defend the decision to grant him French citizenship.

Adrienne Klasa

Sep 8, 2024 – 4.28pm

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Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov was accustomed to rubbing shoulders with France’s business and political elite during frequent visits to the country, where he bounced between Parisian palace hotels and the sun-soaked south.

But last month, the 39-year-old received a hostile welcome upon arriving on a private jet at Paris-Le Bourget airport. The Russia-born billionaire, who is now a French-Emirati citizen, was arrested and later placed under formal investigation over alleged complicity in criminal activity on his messaging app, from drug trafficking to the dissemination of child sexual abuse material.

Financial Times