PARIS – Telegram CEO Pavel Durov considered moving his family to Paris in 2018, the same year he met French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed with him obtaining French citizenship.
Durov’s former partner and mother of his three children, Irina Bolger, told POLITICO that he had signed a contract to rent a €105,000-a-month house in Neuilly-sur-Seine, an upscale suburb of Paris, where she was planning. Reconcile with their children.
Telegram’s founder and CEO was arrested near Paris on August 24 and has been since Convicted on six charges related to illegal activity on the app. He is banned from leaving France and must report to a Paris police station twice a week.
But Durov’s history with Paris predates his arrest. The Telegram boss met with Macron in 2018, at a time when the French president was looking to pitch France as a new top destination for entrepreneurs, particularly in the tech sector. He was French citizenship granted By the president himself.
Bolger said she was in a relationship with Durov between 2013 and 2022 — first in Russia and later in a long-distance setting as the tech tycoon moved to the United Arab Emirates, where identifying their children out of wedlock proved difficult. . She then moved to Europe with her children, she said, but “maintained family ties” with Durov until 2022.
“In 2018, when we came to Europe, we had the idea of settling in France,” Bolger explained, adding that she researched a school for their three children, obtained a residence permit in the fall of that year, and then signed a rental agreement. on a new home for his family in November. Durov signed a French “notarized agreement” to pay all of Bolger’s rental fees, she said.
Durov “didn’t think of staying in that house” but chose to settle in France, intending to visit Bolger and his children.
But Bolger later changed his mind and canceled the contract before moving. She eventually settled in Geneva but later continued to meet with Durov in Paris, spending holidays at palaces in the center of the city, including the Ritz.
As of 2022, Bolger and Durov continued to discuss plans to buy a home in Geneva or in French towns near the Swiss border. Bolger also checked out properties in and around Paris, some of which she visited and which they discussed together, she said.
The couple “discussed buying houses for around €50 million,” and “also considered houses worth €100 million at the same time.”
According to her account, Bolger and Durov’s relationship “completely” ended in 2022, with proceedings pending in Switzerland, where she lives.
According to people familiar with the case in France and Switzerland, France has reached out to Switzerland regarding the allegations made in the proceedings between Bolgar and Durov.
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