Pavel Durov is suspected of allowing the posting of images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraud.
Paris:
The investigation into Telegram boss Pavel Durov, who has fired a warning shot at global tech titans, was launched by a small cybercrime unit within the Paris prosecutor’s office, led by 38-year-old Johanna Brousse.
The arrest of 39-year-old Durov last Saturday marks a significant shift in how some global authorities are trying to deal with tech leaders who are reluctant to police illegal content on their platforms.
The arrest was a sign of the courage of the J3 cybercrime unit, but the real test of its ambitions will be whether Brousse can secure a conviction on a largely untested legal argument, lawyers said.
In an unprecedented move against a major tech CEO, prosecutors argued that Durov bears responsibility for alleged illegality on his platform, putting him under formal investigation on organized crime charges. He is suspected of complicity in running an online platform that enables the posting of images of child sex abuse, drug trafficking and fraud.
Durov’s lawyer said on Thursday that it was “absurd” that he was held responsible and that the app complied with European laws, echoing an earlier statement from Telegram itself.
The fact that he is under formal investigation in France does not imply that he is guilty and will not necessarily lead to a trial, but indicates that judges believe there is sufficient evidence to proceed with the investigation. Investigations can take years before they are brought to trial or withdrawn. Durov is out on bail but is not allowed to leave France.
Brousse’s unit began investigating Durov earlier this year after seeing his app used for numerous alleged crimes, and became frustrated by Telegram’s “almost total lack of response to judicial requests,” Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday .
Brousse declined to comment.
In an interview with Liberation newspaper in January, Brousse said her office was overseeing a growing number of investigations involving Telegram and rival messaging app Discord, adding that tackling crime against them was “one of my struggles” .
Discord CEO Jason Citron did not respond to a request for comment.
Brousse’s J3 cybercrime unit is France’s most important, with a license to prosecute nationwide. But it is also small, with just five prosecutors, well below the 55 to 60 cybercrime prosecutors in Switzerland, according to a 2022 parliamentary report. With limited resources, they “give priority to the most serious crimes,” Brousse told last year at Le Figaro.
Brousse said in a 2022 podcast appearance that she wanted to be tough “so that cybercriminals believe that if they attack France, they will be judged and punished very severely.”
“We want people to be prosecuted, either in their country or in France through arrest warrants,” she said.
Her office was used to “extremely sensitive matters,” she added. “Sometimes legal and geopolitical issues intersect.”
Patrick Perrot, who coordinates AI-enabled investigations at the French gendarmerie and advises the Interior Ministry’s cyber commando unit, said the J3 had been innovative in prosecuting cases that set an international precedent.
“I think it shows that you can’t do what you want with these platforms,” he told Reuters. “It’s a real question for the future because these platforms continue to proliferate, so the challenge of regulation is essential.”
HEAVY LEGAL GROUNDS?
Brousse has led the J3 since 2020, overseeing one of the most important – and controversial – French cybercrime cases ever.
In late 2020, the J3 took charge of the investigation into Sky ECC, which, along with Encrochat, was one of the main encrypted communications services used by gangsters to buy drugs and weapons, or kill rivals. A few years earlier, French, Dutch and Belgian police had their servers, which were housed in northern France, hacked, giving French prosecutors jurisdiction over many of the resulting investigations.
According to Europol, there have been more than 6,500 arrests since Encrochat was dismantled in 2020, with the legality of the interceptions being challenged by appeal courts across Europe.
Paul Krusky, the Canadian Encrochat boss, was extradited from the Dominican Republic to France in February, where he is now awaiting trial. Jean-François Eap’s lawyers from Sky ECC are contesting his French arrest warrant.
Stephane Bonifassi, Eap’s lawyer, said his client was innocent, adding that “Sky ECC was not intended as a tool for criminals, nor was it marketed as such.”
Krusky’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, said his client was innocent.
“The service created by Paul Krusky, like other services that have enjoyed global success, was intended only to protect the privacy and freedom of exchange of its users, and in no way to support criminal activities,” Vey said in a statement .
Two other French lawyers who worked on Sky ECC and Encrochat cases told Reuters that these earlier investigations gave prosecutors the ambition – and a blueprint – to attack Durov.
Robin Binsard, who has fought Encrochat cases in France’s Supreme Court, said prosecutors would have to prove Durov knew about and approved the crime on the app. He called their argument “completely questionable.”
Telegram’s failure to comply with law enforcement requests “does not automatically make someone complicit in a criminal project,” he added.
Binsard said it was clear that “France is pursuing providers of encrypted messaging,” and that other operators of such apps, such as Signal, “should be concerned about whether or not they comply with French regulations. Because the message is clear if they don’t, there will be legal action.”
Signal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A source at the Paris prosecutor’s office said the Sky ECC investigation was not related to the Telegram investigation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)