a bizarre mystery is making headlines after the high-profile arrest of the CEO of telegram a huge messaging platform and it all comes as the Creator faces charges for allegedly allowing heinous activities on the app like drug trafficking or child sex trafficking we're taking a closer look into the investigation of pavl durov and his missing companion welcome to sidebar presented by law crime I'm SRA Gillespie over the last few days the arrest of pavl durov has dominated Global headlines with connections to multiple countries and it seems the drama surrounding the exiled Russian billionaire doesn't stop at
his detention in France it seems one of his recent traveling companions online influencer Julie vava is now missing so here's what we know about durov he and his brother Nikolai founded a social network in Russia called VK back in 2006 but in 2014 durov was kicked out of the company he created after he refused to hand over the personal data of protesters and to block certain pages which the Kremlin was allegedly demanding durov has long been an advocate of free speech and internet Freedom he left Russia and has said he has no plans to go
back after all this he launched telegram which is an encrypted messaging app which quickly grew in popularity telegram was first headquartered in Germany but then it moved to Dubai by right now telegram has around 950 million monthly active users an absolutely huge number and like many social media platforms it provides critical communication Services It's Been instrumental in Sharing updates for the continuing war between Ukraine and Russia but there's very little moderation of the site's content the primary concern has been what's known as cesam child sexual abuse material but investigators into child sex trafficking have uncovered
more alleged criminal activity including the sale and shipment of drugs as well as money laundering authorities say durv is responsible for the content that's being shared on the platform they say he was aware of it but did very little to slow it down French officials also say they've requested information from telegram multiple times so they can identify and stop criminals like child pornographers but French officials say telegram has basically ignored them French police arrested durov as he stepped off his private jet last weekend at an airport just outside of Paris after 4 days in custody
he was released on5 million euros bail and preliminarily charged for managing an online platform to allow illicit transactions by an organized group that charge alone could mean up to 10 years in prison he's supposed to stay in France while officials continue this investigation now durov is a citizen of multiple countries Russia France the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island nation of St kits and Nevis he says he was not on the run before his arrest his lawyer David Olivier Kaminsky was quoted by French media saying it's totally absurd to think that the person in
charge of a social network would be implicated in criminal acts that don't concern him directly or indirectly and in a statement posted on the platform after durov's arrest telegram said it follows EU laws and its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving so who is Julie vavala the woman who has apparently been traveling with durov recently the 24-year-old describes herself as a crypto coach and social media influencer and she's based in Dubai vavala has recently showed off luxurious trips in the same areas durov has recently been traveling like ubekistan the two have posted similar
photos and videos from the same places now since durov landed back in France news agency AF P reports vava's family hasn't been able to get in touch with her and she seems to have gone silent online this has led to not only concerns about her safety but also wild conspiracy theories about her involvement in the telegram CEO's arrest some within the crypto Community have suggested that some of vava's posts helped tip off authorities about durov's location others have taken it even further saying this was a Honeypot situation and that vava got close to dur of
as part of a criminal investigation watching or listening to sidebar you may be out and about doing things and if you're running errands listen up you're going to want to download the upside app it's something I use every time when I'm out and about like filling up gas why wouldn't I use it I get free cash back all you have to do is download the upside app once you've done that you can claim an offer for whatever you're buying on upside so pay as normal with a debit or credit card and then follow the steps
on the app to get paid to find out how much you could earn click the link in the description to download upside or scan the QR code on the screen and use our promo code sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back on every gallon on your first tank of gas today we're joined by John lucich who's a tech and phone expert John thank you so much for coming on with us today thank you for having me so let's get started with a really basic question what is telegram to me it sounds something like signal
or Facebook Messenger is that what it is it's a messaging app to get to to uh you know have open messages you can share messages um you can share files you can live stream it's just like a lot of other um you know messaging applications they try and differentiate themselves in small ways you know just like a telegram would be something we um we used to send but now we do it instantly right so it's a play off the old technology this kind of leads into my next question about telegram being encrypted and this is
something we hear a lot with signal where somebody who is conducting illegal drug activity whatever it may be use this signal because it is encrypted so that kind of gets me thinking about telegram is it possible that that's what people use it for absolutely but remember it's it's with all the Technologies it's not limited to telegram just like bank robbers use a car to go rob a bank right it's the the that doesn't mean that the platform put it up up there to do that right we all types of Technologies are abused on a regular
basis to commit crimes we know the defendant in this case pavl durov has kind of an interesting history he's almost like the Zuckerberg of Russia way back when he created a social media platform and he only left because the Kremlin had requested some data and he didn't want to hand it over so now I'm kind of wondering does this parallel what's going on in France is it possible he has has this data and just refuses to hand it over absolutely you know and they may have extradition I'm not familiar with the laws of France and
and Russia but they may have a a treaty where they have extradition where they said once he comes into France grab him and and we'll extradite him you know so the problem is right now there's not a lot of information about what's really going on um and who's with him and why they're with him and how long they've been with him but you know based on my 35 years in this industry you know being retired from the the state organized crime Bureau of the New Jersey attorney general's office and now doing it for more than
25 years in the private sector um we can speculate but it's going to be an educated speculation right based on all that experience so at the very least we know he's really techsavvy he's created multiple platforms he's got millions of users so I'm wondering if and this is a big if would he know how to cover his tracks well he's so well vered in his own technology so I don't know what he's actually been chared with but yes you know even kids today you know they're growing up with technology in their homes would be aware
a lot of times but a guy that's this sophisticated would absolutely know how to um to um cover up his tracks the problem is though it's hard um when you have a cell phone that everybody knows right that everybody has a phone number to especially people that are closest in your circle um and to give up that cell phone by the way that's the only way if you don't give up that cell phone they're going to be able to track you any and everywhere you go let's talk about tracking that's the reason we're talking about
this story at all today his detainment in France and the woman who he was with that's 24-year-old Julie vyoa now we don't know where she is that's really the reason for the story today is it possible that we could track her down from her phone or social media posts remember speculating of course she may have been a plant she may be a cooperating witness she may be a uh you know somebody who was placed there I don't believe this is the young lady that's been his girlfriend for years right so depending upon when she came
into the scene she may be a confidential informant that's actually you know when you're texting people secretively and someone says who are you texting who you doing this it's it's um it's it's suspicious but when you're just posting something on social media so if and I say if she is a cooperating witness or confidential informant then posting stuff on uh on social media would be a great way to tell law enforcement where is going to be next um so if that was the case they they'd know exactly where to go and when to go make
the arrest once they got the paperwork in um in place a lot of people are saying that she's a spy I know it kind of sounds like fanfiction or a conspiracy theory but people are saying this online mostly X or Twitter because she was posting photos of where they've been together they both recently were in the same spots and took similar photos how is this something that these online conspiracy theorists are going to be able to prove or is it something they won't be able to you're not going to be able to prove it until
more facts come out right so you know when you say try and locate her she if she is a cooperating witness or a confidential informant which is basically one of the same um depending on which agency you talk to um she could be with law enforcement right now they could be you know holding on to her for a lot of different reasons including her own safety so or she just may have been into the wind and didn't want to be part of the media um you know barrage of media requests that might come as a
result of this so one day we will know we should know um but it all depends uh what comes out going forward I think what's really tricky here is there are a lot of questions we don't have a lot of the evidence or a lot of the answers as of now but I'm wondering if authorities are going to focus on things like social media phones as you said we all have a phone with us is that something they'll then really focus on it it it definitely could be um but like I said we need more
information because we don't even know what the case is that Russia has against this guy other than failure to give them some information remember it could be something as simple as why Europe wants to go out and some people in Europe want to go out and buy arrest Elon Musk for letting too many people have a free um voice when they want certain voices um you know halted they don't want every everybody to have a freedom of speech in Europe not all of Europe but some or a lot of Europe uh they they want to
you know quiet people and not give them a voice and only have one voice um heard and maybe that's what Russia's up to um we don't know um musk does not deserve to be arrested he's doing a great job I think anybody who gives freedom of speech to anybody and everybody and to all sides equally is a great person um so I I'd like to see more about what Russia has against him because remember Russia there's a lot of bad things that you know they can say about Putin um about what he's done to journalists
and everything else over the years um so I'd like to see more about what what they want to charge him with now you brought up Russia and there's a lot going on there because we have Russia he was arrested in France we know that telegram was based in Dubai prior to that it was Germany so really he's involved with a global World here there's a lot going on I'm wondering now is there a discrepancy between different countries and their technological advancements so is it possible Russia knows more than France does or vice versa remember it's
I don't care what other countries want I care about the United States and freedom of speech for us so if those servers in are in the United States that host um a specific um you know messaging application then other countries shouldn't have a say of what we allow what we don't allow they want to they want to stop it at their country and block any thing from their country which they can do so they couldn't get to that social media but don't tell me that you want to come out and arrest an American citizen for
putting up a social media application that you disagree with because of the political or or social differences that you have with them um so the only reason I bring up Russia is because it seems like Russia was the start of all this where he would not comply with giving them certain data I don't know what kind of data they have but remember when you own a social media application that's so popular worldwide why you are going to have connections in all these nations but if the Nations don't like it tell them to block it that's
that's the answer the answer is not arresting someone because it might go the other way so we want freedom of speech for everybody in America and wherever those those um servers are hosted that should be the the law um so if they're in Russia then Russia can do something about it they can take the service down so let's bring it back to what we're talking about today that's Julie as you said she could be missing on her own accord something nefarious could be happening but do you think investigators are going to track her down by
going piece by piece through her Instagram Tik Tok YouTube kind of the breadcrumb trails that she left behind are they going to go through all of that in order to find her well if she's really into the Wind by herself she's not going to be posting anymore because even she's got to realize that any post that you put up the social media companies can just give to the the agencies upon request whether it's subpena or they call a Communications data warrant um the IP address that she's coming back from um and then they'd be able
to locate her and they'd be able to track her whereabouts she'd have to turn off not only turn off her phone but dump her phone Al together because they can still track your phone when it's off where you where you are so if she's really into the Wind by herself then she wouldn't be doing any of that and there would be no way to track her um unless she really is just not that techsavvy um but most people are today I think we're going to see more information come out about this this case what's happened
to her where she is and what her involvement was as this progresses but we always should back law enforcement law enforcement's jobs to investigate and they should have the right to do that worldwide thank you so much John for coming on again and we'll talk soon thanks have a nice day whatever is happening next this is definitely a case we'll want to follow and bring you the latest details as we have them that's all for us today on sidebar but make sure you subscribe anywhere you listen to your podcast pods whether it's Apple podcast Spotify
or YouTube I'm Sierra Gillespie and this has been sidebar presented by laon cry [Music]
