The investigation is over suspected complicity in various crimes including running an online platform that allows illicit transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud, as well as the refusal to communicate information to authorities, money laundering and providing cryptographic services to criminals, the statement said.
Reports suggest that Telegram CEO was accompanied by his 24-year-old girlfriend identified as Juli Vavilova. She too is said to have been detained. Some conspiracy theories circulating on the internet also claim that Juli tipped French authorities off Durov’s location through her Instagram posts. Incidentally, this is also not the first time that she and Telegram CEO travelled together. Durov and Juli are said to have been photographed earlier too in locations including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan. However, presently we could not find any pictures of her with the Telegram CEO on her Instagram account. It is not clear if she deleted them post his arrest.
These rumours started after an X post featuring Juli’s photo on a plane, accompanied by the caption, “The woman who accompanied Pavel Durov on his journey that led to his arrest in Juli Vavilova,” was shared by the Twitter user Baptiste Robert. As per his Twitter profile, Robert is a security researcher and CEO of a French startup called Predicta Lab.
No major details are available about Juli. As per her Instagram profile she is a crypto coach and streamer from Dubai, with over 22,000 followers on Instagram. She is said to be fluent in English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Her interests include gaming, crypto, and languages.