Pavel Durov was born on October 10, 1984, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia. He spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy, where his father was employed. Durov graduated from the Philology Department of Saint Petersburg State University in 2006 with a first-class degree. Pavel Durov: Family Durov’s grandfather, Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov, fought in World War II and received several military honors. His father, Valery Semenovich Durov, is a Doctor of Philological Sciences and a renowned academic. Durov has Ukrainian heritage from his mother’s side. Pavel Durov: Career Highlights Durov co-founded VKontakte (VK) with Ilya Perekopsky in 2006, inspired by Facebook. VK grew to a value of $3 billion under Durov’s leadership. He faced a standoff with the police in 2011 over demands to remove opposition politicians’ pages. Durov publicly opposed Mail.ru Group’s efforts to buy VK in 2012 and sold his 12% stake in VK to Ivan Tavrin in December 2013. Durov submitted his resignation as VK CEO on April 1, 2014, initially believed to be related to the Russo-Ukrainian War. He later clarified that it was an April Fool’s joke on April 3, 2014. Durov refused to hand over personal data of Ukrainian protesters to Russian security agencies and block Alexei Navalny’s page on VK. He was dismissed as VK CEO on April 21, 2014, citing his earlier resignation letter. Durov claimed that VK was effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin’s allies and left Russia. Advertisement After leaving Russia, Durov obtained Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship and secured $300 million in Swiss banks. He focused on creating Telegram, an encrypted messaging service. Telegram was headquartered in Berlin and later moved to Dubai. Durov launched the “Gram” cryptocurrency and the TON platform in 2018 to monetize Telegram’s success. He raised a total of $1.7 billion from investors but faced legal challenges from the American regulator SEC.
Pavel Durov,the founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, has been placed under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into organised crime on the messaging app.
Prosecutors in Paris also said the 39-year-old billionaire has not been remanded in custody, but placed under judicial supervision, and has to pay a €5m (£4.2m; $5.6m) deposit.
Mr Durov, who is also a French national, has to show up at a French police station twice a week and is not allowed to leave French territory.
The actions from the prosecutors in France is the latest stage in this ongoing story, which has caused considerable shock in the world of technology.
It is unprecedented for the owner of a social media or messaging platform to be arrested because of the way in which that platform is being used, and it has fuelled a debate about freedom of speech, accountability and the role of social media and messaging company bosses within all of that.
Mr Durov’s lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, said Telegram complied in every respect with European digital regulations and was moderated to the same standards as other social networks.
He said it was “absurd” to suggest his client could be involved “in criminal acts that don’t concern him either directly or indirectly”.
Well done