Paris Court : Durov Charged with 6 Crimes, Judicial Investigation Into Telegram Launched

On August 29, according to the official website of the Paris Court, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was indicted for all the crimes mentioned in the introductory indictment, including: - Conspiracy by an organized group to manage an online platform in order to carry out illegal transactions (a crime punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 euros); - Refusal to provide information or documents in response to a request by an authorized body; - Conspiracy to commit a crime Conspiracy to commit a crime, including the unjustified provision of programs or data aimed at disrupting automated data processing systems, the organized distribution of images of minors, the trafficking of illegal drugs, fraud by organized gangs, conspiracy or delinquency for the purpose of committing a crime; - Criminal and illegal money laundering by organized gangs; - Provision of encryption services in non-compliant frameworks; - Provision of encryption means without fully securing the authentication or integrity control functions. encryption means. Pavel Durov will be subject to judicial supervision, the provision of bail of €5 million, the obligation to report to the police station twice a week and a ban on leaving France. The court said that Telegram's almost total failure to respond to the legal request had previously attracted the attention of the cybercrime department (J3) of JUNALCO (National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Paris), and in particular of OFMIN (National Office for Minors). The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 under the direction of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office and was coordinated by OFMIN. Pursuant to the introductory indictment of July 8, 2024, a judicial investigation was initiated. The investigating judge entrusted the continuation of the investigation to the C3N (National Gendarmerie Network Unit) and the ONAF (National Customs Anti-Fraud Office).