Legal troubles are mounting rapidly for Pavel Durov (Telegram Founder)

 

Legal troubles are mounting rapidly for Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Wednesday that Durov has been formally indicted on numerous criminal charges connected to distribution of child sexual abuse material, selling narcotics, fraud, and money laundering.

Durov, who Forbes estimates is worth $15.5 billion, has been released from custody but is now under judicial supervision, and must pay a bail of 5 million euros, or $5.5 million. He is also required to report to French police twice per week and is not allowed to leave the country. His representative did not respond to a comment request.

Telegram’s lax moderation, particularly around images of child sexual abuse material (or CSAM), and lack of serious response to European law enforcement contributed to Durov’s prosecution, French authorities said.

“The almost total lack of response from Telegram to judicial requisitions was brought to the attention of the cybercrime fighting section,” Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, wrote in a French-language statement. “When consulted, other French investigative services and public prosecutors as well as various partners within Eurojust, particularly Belgian ones, shared the same observation.” Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn did not immediately respond to a comment request.

Separately, as Forbes reported on Wednesday, Durov is the subject of a criminal complaint in Switzerland, where his former romantic partner and their three children live. He is alleged to have been physically violent with his son on more than one occasion, including once in Paris. Durov declined to comment on the allegations through a representative.

Forbes has now learned that Durov also faces a connected investigation into alleged violence against one of his children by the OFMIN, a French agency dedicated to protecting minors from violence, according to a source with knowledge of the case. Telegram did not immediately respond to a comment request about Durov’s indictment or this investigation.

“Telegram is quickly becoming an app that is being used to engage in human trafficking and child exploitation.”

In a recent court case, U.S. authorities said Telegram “generally does not cooperate with law enforcement,” and noted that Telegram “has become a common platform for the distribution, receipt, and discussion,” of CSAM. Just this week, U.S. federal prosecutors alleged that Seth Herrera, an Army soldier “created his own public Telegram group to store his CSAM and sent himself video files that include screaming children being raped.”

Telegram spokesperson Vaughn previously told Forbes in a Telegram message that the platform “actively moderates harmful content on its platform.”

“Telegram is quickly becoming an app that is being used to engage in human trafficking and child exploitation,” Joe Scaramucci, a retired deputy at the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office in Texas, who currently serves as director of Law Enforcement Investigations and Operations for Skull Games, emailed Forbes. Scaramucci noted that last year, the company did not send any tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which passes on potential child abuse occurring through tech companies’ platforms to law enforcement.

Within the last year alone, Telegram has been connected to numerous crimes, in addition to CSAM. U.S. law enforcement have prosecuted an Oregon man who allegedly used Telegram to sell drugs to children, and an Alabama man that allegedly ran a fraudulent check ring. Meanwhile, an Ohio man was implicated in allegations of “animal crushing” videos that were partially organized on Telegram. Earlier this month, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty to running a refund scheme on the messaging platform.

On Tuesday, Forbes was easily able to find numerous public groups on the app that distribute or sell products and services that are either highly questionable if not outright illegal in the United States and most jurisdictions. These included a user claiming to sell oxycodone, heroin and fentanyl; another account selling handguns and Glock switches, a type of gun modifier that is illegal in the U.S.; and a third user claimed to be selling human organs, accepting payment in cryptocurrency. Some of these channels were removed after Forbes informed Telegram.

Forbes also located multiple groups selling counterfeit passports and cash: one offered “authentic USA, UK, Canada…documents with ease,” and another trumpeted “best quality banknotes available for sale.”

In addition, several accounts offered easy-to-use tools to make deepfake AI pornographic images. One simply asked users to follow a two-step process: “upload a photo to our bot,” and “enjoy the final result!” Several of these accounts were taken down after Forbes flagged them.

The company’s content policy is permissive relative to some of its messaging platform rivals. It states that its service cannot be used to “send spam or scam users,” or to “promote violence on publicly viewable Telegram channels,” or to “post illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable Telegram channels.” By contrast both Signal and WhatsApp only allow their platforms to be used for legal purposes.

“Moderators use a combination of proactive monitoring, AI tools and user reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day that violate Telegram’s terms of service,” Vaughn, the Telegram spokesperson, added.