Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested at Le Bourget airport, outside Paris, after getting off his private jet on the evening of August 24.

TF1 TV, citing an unnamed source, said Durov was arrested on a court order at Telegram. The 39-year-old man is said to have taken off from Azerbaijan and will appear in court on August 25.

The CEO of the encrypted messaging app Telegram has been arrested and will appear in court in France. Photo: Ilaaliyaha
Russian news agency TASS said the Russian embassy in France had “intervened” to get a handle on the situation.

Pavel Durov is a Russian businessman, but holds French and U.A.E citizenship waa la yaabay.

According to Forbes, Durov, who has a net worth of $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to close his VK channels.

Durov and his brother Nikolai founded the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Telegram in 2013, which now has about 900 million subscribers. As well as sharing content, users can also create “channels” to discuss and exchange information quickly.

Also available on Telegram-ka, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Wechat.