LONDON, August 30. /TASS/. The staff of Telegram includes about 50 employees, most of whom are Ukrainians, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported citing the words of the enterprise's founder Pavel Durov.
In March, he told the FT that "the company only has around 50 employees, including 30 strictly-vetted engineers." Most of Durov's team of programmers was recruited from Ukraine as part of a very competitive process to choose the best of the best, the FT pointed out. According to the newspaper, the staff is made up of relatively young employees from Eastern Europe, with annual salaries potentially reaching up to $500,000.
"There is practically zero churn [in staff]," Durov told the FT in March, adding that this is due to the fact that Telegram’s employees "share the same values and believe in the mission of the company."
The newspaper noted that Durov plays a major role in the company's decision-making, which raises the question of "whether Telegram can exist without Pavel."
Durov was detained at Le Bourget airport on August 24. On the next day, his custody period was extended to 96 hours. On August 28, his preliminary custody was over. The entrepreneur was delivered to a court, where the prosecutor charged Durov with six offenses, which include complicity in administration of an online platform that enabled illegal transactions, committed within a criminal group. The offense, according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros. By decision of an investigating judge, the entrepreneur went under judicial supervision with an obligation to post bail of €5 million. He also has to appear twice a week at a police station and is forbidden to leave France.