Telegram founder hacked his iPhone in 2017 French spy operation, a year before lunch with Macron: report

Billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was reportedly released from police custody on Wednesday and transferred to an investigative judge. The news follows a new report that his iPhone was hacked in 2017 in a joint operation by France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a Wall Street Journal relationship.

Durov, arrested in France on Saturday on charges of not collaborating in computer and financial crimes on Telegram, was released following a four-day interrogation by French police, according to the French news outlet. Figaro and a Reuters judicial source.

The investigating judge will now decide whether there is enough evidence to place the Russian-born billionaire under formal investigation following his arrest as part of the organized crime probe into the messaging app. The decision is expected by Wednesday. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or dismissed.

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On Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal article citing people familiar with the matter said that Durov’s phone had been hacked during a 2017 spy operation, code-named “Purple Music,” which occurred about a year before Durov was meeting French President Emmanuel Macron for lunch, during which they discussed the Russian-born tech guru becoming a French citizen.

The lunch was part of a series of meetings the French leader has had with tech entrepreneurs, a source close to Macron tells Reuters. Durov was granted citizenship by both France and the United Arab Emirates in 2021, with the Gulf country investing more than $75 million in his platform that year.

The operation, according to the report, was triggered by French security officials’ concerns about the Islamic State’s use of Telegram to recruit agents and plan attacks.

A former French intelligence official from France’s General Directorate for Internal Security told the newspaper that compromising Telegram was a long-term effort by the country’s spy services, although the official did not comment on the alleged hacking operation against Durov.

It’s unclear how long his phone was hacked. Durov created the encrypted messaging service Telegram in 2013, which has helped boost his net worth to about $15.5 billion, according to Forbes.

The French and United Arab Emirates foreign ministries did not immediately respond to Fox Business’ request for comment.

The app is now based in the United Arab Emirates, where Durov lives, and has more than 900 million monthly active users, according to its own data. Durov also holds citizenship of the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The app has drawn the ire of some governments as they seek to crack down on platforms that spread misinformation or information critical of governments. It has played a key role in spreading information about the Russia-Ukraine war, with authorities on both sides using its channels to broadcast their narratives about the conflict. The app works by allowing users to join individual channels and groups to view content.

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Durov, born in Soviet Leningrad, graduated from St. Petersburg State University and left Russia in 2014 after he refused a government order to shut down opposition communities on his former social media platform, VK, which he has since sold, according to Reuters.

He was arrested on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris after landing on a private plane from Azerbaijan, in a judicial investigation opened last month involving 12 alleged criminal violations, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday. His arrest sparked a swift outcry from free speech advocates, including fellow tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk, and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., leading to accusations of censorship against the media and the Biden-Harris administration.

The high-profile arrest saw Macron say on Monday that the detention was “in no way a political decision”.

THE Paris Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Monday that the alleged violations include complicity in the sale of child pornography and drug trafficking, fraud, aiding and abetting organized crime transactions and refusing to share information or documents with investigators when required by law, the Associated Press reported. The prosecutor’s office did not specify what crime or crimes Durov himself might be suspected of.

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Jean-Michel Bernigaud, secretary general of OFMIN, a French police agency tasked with preventing violence against minors, said Durov’s arrest was linked to the platform’s failure to adequately moderate crime-related content sexual acts on minors.

Despite Macron’s visit in 2018, French authorities have long viewed Telegram with suspicion and have taken a hard-line approach to regulating online platforms, eradicating what they see as information that fuels anti-Semitism and racism and tackling illegal trading on them. platforms.

Even the European Union this year it passed the Digital Services Lawwhich requires online platforms to do more to police the internet for illegal content. Companies face fines of up to 10% of annual global revenue for DMA violations and up to 6% for DSA violations.

Fox Business’ Danielle Wallace and Reuters contributed to this report.