Investing.com -- A French judge has placed Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, under formal investigation on suspicions of complicity in operating a platform involved in illegal transactions, child sexual abuse material, and drug trafficking, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Durov is also under scrutiny for alleged money laundering and failure to cooperate with judicial authorities. After his arrest at a Paris airport on Saturday, Durov spent four days in police custody before being granted bail, which includes a €5 million bond, regular check-ins with police, and restrictions on leaving France, the report added.
David-Olivier Kaminski, Durov’s lawyer, has condemned the investigation, calling it "totally absurd" to suggest that the head of a social media network could be responsible for criminal acts occurring on the platform. Kaminski asserted that Telegram complies fully with European digital regulations.
“Telegram isn’t just a messenger app relied on by millions of crypto users for communicating, learning, gaming, and trading: it’s now part of an entire ecosystem powered by the TON blockchain that supports hundreds of apps and protocols seamlessly integrated into the Telegram app,” said Andrei Grachev, Managing Partner at DWF Labs, to Investing.com.
The formal investigation does not equate to guilt or a guaranteed trial, but indicates that judges believe there is sufficient evidence to advance the probe. Such investigations can take years before resulting in a trial or being dismissed.
“As a decentralized network TON can’t be shut down and its value proposition has not and will not diminish,” Grachev said.
French President Emmanuel Macron, known for his use of Telegram, has stated that the investigation is a matter for the judiciary and not influenced by political motives.
Macron, who had previously met with Durov was granted French citizenship in 2021 under a rare procedure for high-profile individuals, the report said.
“We are confident in TON’s tech, tokenomics, independent developer teams, and communities than ever. It’s a crypto network that has reached critical mass and that will continue to support new use cases while solving the distribution problem through native integration into web2 apps,” Grachev said.
Toncoin, the cryptocurrency associated with Telegram's ecosystem, has dropped by about 20% since the arrest.