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Inside the Bust That Took Down Pavel Durov—and Upended Telegram
The Russian-born CEO styles himself as a free-speech crusader and a scourge of the surveillance state. Here’s the real story behind Pavel Durov’s arrest and what happened next.
As Maillochon and other French journalists went on to report, prosecutors had been secretly investigating Durov for months over his and Telegram’s alleged failure to block illegal activity—which authorities claim included fraud, drug trafficking, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), organized crime, and terrorism—on the platform. Shortly after WIRED contacted the company’s creative director for this story, he posted a cartoon that implied an internal attitude of defiance: A black-armored Durov stands in front of the Eiffel Tower, repelling waves of riot police who have “Thinkpol” emblazoned on their backs, while Macron looks on, clutching a red-bound copy of 1984. Some prospective investors told WIRED they worried about being able to call in their debt if Durov went rogue: “If it’s just him in Dubai with 50 engineers, it’s going to be really difficult for us to enforce on this,” one analyst remembers thinking when his credit investment firm briefly considered Telegram bonds.
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