Telegram CEO Pavel Durov – who has been detained in France over charges that he failed to prevent illicit activity on his social media app – faces accusations from the mother of three of his children that he physically abused their youngest son, withheld financial support and led a secret double life.
Irina Bolgar, Durov’s alleged partner of 10 years and a trained lawyer, filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland last year alleging Durov struck their then-three-year-old son so hard it sent him “across the room,” according to Forbes.
Bolgar filed a separate complaint this year, claiming Durov had cut off child support payments. A spokesman for prosecutors in Geneva said an investigation is underway, the New York Times reported separately on Thursday.
Bolgar has since launched a social media campaign to back her claims with “evidence.” She shared about 10 posts on Instagram over just the past week which include carousel slideshows of Durov with her and their children complete with sappy love songs and long captions slamming Durov.
The Russian billionaire – who has a net worth of $15.5 billion, according to Forbes – was arrested in Paris in August. He was subsequently charged with crimes connected to claims that he failed to prevent drug trafficking, the distribution of child sex-abuse material and the promotion of terrorism from invading Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.
The case is the first time a major platform creator has been held liable for the spread of illicit content through the platform.
Durov has painted himself as a staunch free speech advocate who refused to hand over Ukrainian users’ encrypted messages to the Kremlin. Some supporters – including former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson – decried the arrest as an attack on free speech.
“The carefully crafted image of Durov as a defender of freedom collapses when faced with his personal life,” Irina Bolgar, Durov’s alleged partner of 10 years, told The New York Times.
“It reveals a stark contrast between his public declarations of freedom and his private actions,” said Bolgar, a trained lawyer from St. Petersburg.
Bolgar said she lived a luxurious lifestyle alongside Durov – replete with stays in a 116-acre resort in Sardinia that cost $1 million a month, trips to Paris, Italy and Monaco via private planes and a beachside penthouse in Dubai with its own elevator.
Bolgar said she met Durov in 2012 in St. Petersburg. They bonded over a common interest in yoga and their relationship turned romantic during a trip to Dubai, she said.
They returned to Russia and lived together at the W Hotel before moving into an apartment near his company’s headquarters, she said.
Bolgar had their first child at the end of 2013.
But Durov has said their relationship was merely transactional, not romantic.
“Ms. Bolgar, who was Mr. Durov’s yoga coach at the time, suggested to Mr. Durov that they have children together,” Durov’s spokesman told The New York Times in a statement. “He agreed, and three children were born.”
After Durov sold his stake in VKontakte – his first social media app, known as the Russian version of Facebook – and the Kremlin demanded he hand over encrypted data from his platforms, Durov fled the country.
But he returned months later with Bolgar.
“When we decided to come back to Russia, I asked him, ‘So you said you would like not to come back to Russia, but now you have the opposite intention.’ He said, ‘Why not come back to Russia?’” she told The New York Times.
Durov’s spokesman said he never concealed his returns to Russia.
Then, Bolgar grew suspicious that Durov was leading a double life with a secret second family. He denied the claims when she asked about news reports of a separate family in 2014.
But Bolgar said she discovered the truth when the couple’s personal driver delivered holiday presents that were for older children from his separate family.
Durov became obsessed with wealth and his public image, she claimed.
He considered staying in a Dubai hotel that cost $20,000 a night because he “made tens of millions of easy money on Bitcoins,” he allegedly told her.
Durov had his friend – who owns an agency representing swimsuit models – take his photos for social media, Bolgar said.
He reportedly told Bolgar to “come see how people on the Forbes rich list live” and even sent her a photo of him holding a rented baby lion.
Durov’s spokesman said the billionaire “has been consistently critical of the extravagant lifestyles of the ultrawealthy and advocates for creating rather than consuming.”
Then in 2021, Durov became psychologically and physically abusive – striking his three-year-old son in April, then hitting him again and shaking him in November, according to court filings.
His son suffered a concussion, and for months afterward experienced bed wetting and nightmares, the complaint said.
Durov asked Bolgar to move to Dubai, but she refused over concerns about laws in the United Arab Emirates that might grant Durov custody of their children, she claimed.
Bolgar threatened to go to the police in the fall of 2022 over Durov’s behavior, and he threatened to cut off financial support – which he did in November 2022, she claimed.
In 2022, Durov said Bolgar had been abusing credit cards linked to his bank accounts by splurging on luxury clothes and jewelry.
Their dispute made its to way to social media, where Durov argued that he had more than 100 children since he was a sperm donor.
“We must always stay responsible for our children,” Bolgar wrote on Instagram. “That’s the difference between a sperm donor and a parent.”
Durov’s attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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