Police at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, once Paris' main airport but now a general aviation airport for private and business flights to the French capital, arrested Telegram app CEO Pavel Durov on Saturday. (Photo credit: Reuters)
Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov reportedly had his iPhone hacked in a joint French-UAE operation in 2017. The Wall Street Journal Report.
Durov, who was arrested in France on Saturday for failing to cooperate in cyber and financial crimes on Telegram, had his phone hacked in an espionage operation codenamed “Purple Music.” The operation took place about a year before the Russian-born tech guru discussed obtaining French citizenship over lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
A source close to Macron told Reuters the lunch was part of a series of meetings Macron had with technology entrepreneurs. Durov was granted citizenship by both France and the UAE in 2021, and the Gulf state invested more than $75 million in his platform that year.
Telegram's billionaire CEO Pavel Durov (left) had his iPhone hacked in a joint French-UAE operation in 2017, about a year before Durov met with the French, The Wall Street Journal reported. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images, left, Bertrand Guay/AFP, right, Jakub Polzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images, center./Getty Images)
The operation was reportedly prompted by concerns from French security authorities that the Islamic State was using Telegram to recruit operatives and plan attacks.
A former French intelligence official at France's Directorate-General for Internal Security told the outlet that the Telegram compromise was a long-term effort by France's intelligence services, but he did not comment on the hacking operation against Durov.
It's unclear how long Durov's phone was hacked for. Durov founded Telegram, an encrypted messaging service in 2013 that has boosted his net worth to about $15.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
The French foreign ministry and the UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Fox Business' requests for comment.
The app is currently based in the United Arab Emirates, where Durov lives and claims to have more than 900 million monthly active users, according to company data. Durov is also a citizen of the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The app has drawn the ire of some governments who want to crack down on platforms that spread misinformation and criticism of governments. It has played a key role in spreading information about the Russia-Ukraine war, with officials from both sides using channels on the app to broadcast their views on the conflict. The app works by allowing users to join individual channels or groups to watch content.
RFK Jr., Elon Musk and others react to Telegram CEO arrest in France: “A red line has been crossed”
Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of Telegram, was arrested in France on Saturday for allegedly failing to cooperate regarding cyber and financial crimes at Telegram. (Steve Jennings/Getty Images, TechCrunch/Getty Images)
Born in Leningrad, Soviet Union, Durov graduated from St. Petersburg State University. Left Russia According to Reuters, he dissolved VK, a social media platform he had previously run, in 2014 after refusing to comply with a government order to shut down an opposition community on the platform, which has since been sold.
Paris prosecutors said Monday that the suspect was arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after reportedly arriving on a private jet from Azerbaijan. A judicial investigation launched last month had laid 12 suspected criminal offences. His arrest sparked immediate outcry from free speech advocates, including fellow tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has raised allegations of censorship against the media and the Biden-Harris administration.
Commenting on the high-profile arrests, Macron insisted on Monday that the detentions were “never a political decision.”
of Paris Prosecutor's Office The charges include conspiring to sell child pornography, conspiring to traffic drugs, fraud, aiding organized crime and refusing to share information or documents with investigators as required by law, prosecutors said in a statement on Monday, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors did not say what crimes Durov himself is suspected of.
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Elon Musk criticized Durov's arrest. (Mark Piasecki/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Jean-Michel Bernigaud, director general of OFMIN, the French police agency tasked with preventing violence against minors, said Durov's arrest was linked to the platform's alleged failure to properly moderate content related to child sex crimes.
Despite a visit with Macron in 2018, French authorities have long viewed Telegram with suspicion and have taken a hardline stance in regulating the online platform, including rooting out what they see as anti-Semitism and racism and tackling illegal commerce on the platform.
The European Union The Digital Services Act was approved this year.The law requires online platforms to do more to police illegal content on the internet, and could impose fines of up to 10 percent of companies' annual global turnover for violating the DMA and 6 percent for violating the DSA.
Fox Business' Daniel Wallace contributed to this report.
