Jim Rogers: Durov's Arrest Could End France's Attractiveness for High-Tech
18:45 GMT 28.08.2024 (Updated: 19:31 GMT 28.08.2024)
© AP Photo / Christophe Ena
Subscribe
The fallout from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s surprise arrest in France over the weekend continues to reverberate, with observers asking what the move means for free speech in Europe. But money talks too, and right now it's saying that the French Republic is no longer a safe place for business, especially in the tech sector.
Pavel Durov was transferred to a Paris court for “initial questioning and possible indictment” on Wednesday, days after his arrest at Paris’s Bourget Airport Saturday in connection with a long list of dubious charges, from looking the other way on fraud, money laundering and illegal cryptography to abetting or facilitating drug trafficking and child pornography, to refusing to respond to requests by authorities in criminal investigations.
The charges against Durov have been slammed by some in the tech world with Proton VPN founder and tech entrepreneur Andy Yen warning that if they are sustained, he doesn’t see “how tech founders could possibly travel to France, much less hire in France.”
“This is economic suicide and is rapidly and permanently changing the perception of founders and investors” toward France, Yen wrote in an X post on Tuesday.
Macroeconomist and UnHerd contributor Philip Pilkington echoed these concerns, warning in an article this week that Paris’s move could drive investors of all stripes out of France, and Europe in general.
“The damage that this could do to France’s image in the eyes of the technology and entrepreneurial communities is profound,” Pilkington wrote, pointing out that Durov’s detention has opened a Pandora’s Box in which the French state begins to systematically bring criminal charges against the developers of internet communication platforms.
“Europe is already destroying its international competitiveness in its manufacturing sector through sanctions and counter-sanctions on Russian energy. Now, it seems, securocrats in the European bureaucracies want to turn the continent into a place where technologists fear the creation of platforms that allow for communications,” Pilkington warned.
The Durov case will likely lead to an exodus of entrepreneurs from Europe – a far cry from French President Emmanuel Macron’s promises in 2017 to make France a “startup nation,” the observer added.
Increasing Costs, Decreasing Trust
“Whenever a country starts arresting high-level executives, especially [in] technology, or in an industry which is international and usual, it attracts attention, and many people will think it is unjustified and many people will say it's unjustified,” Jim Rogers, renowned investor and chairman of Beeland Interests and co-founder of Quantum Fund, told Sputnik.
“So I don't know, I hope that France knows what it's doing. If France has an ironclad 100% case, then it probably will not hurt them. Otherwise, many people will say ‘wait a minute, we don't want to do anything in France. It is too dangerous,’” Rogers stressed.
“I don't know the facts. I don't know if anybody's guilty or not, but I will say this will make many people wonder about doing business in France. This will make many people check to see that everything they are doing in France is okay. It's an added level of expense. It's an added level of operation. Nobody wants to be caught doing something wrong in the country. And if people now worry about France, it's another expense. Another level of caution,” the veteran investor and predictor of global financial trends said.
The Plot Thickens
The Durov saga continues to become more and more interesting with each passing day, with respected French investigative newspaper Canard Enchaine reporting Tuesday that the tech entrepreneur was supposed to have dinner with Macron on the day of his arrest. The Elyssee Palace dismissed this information.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, that Durov’s phone had been hacked by France and the United Arab Emirates in a joint operation dubbed ‘Purple Music’ in 2017. In 2018, Macron reportedly lunched with Durov to invite him to move Telegram’s headquarters to France. Durov refused, picking Dubai in the UAE instead.
Durov, 39, has Russian, Saint Kitts & Nevis, UAE and French citizenship.
