Tech Billionaire Announces Inheritance Plan for the More Than 100 Children He's Fathered In an interview with French news magazine "Le Point," Telegram founder and billionaire Pavel Durov explained how he intends to dole out his fortune.
By David James
Pavel Durov, the 40-year-old controversial founder of instant messaging app Telegram, told French political magazine Le Point that he has a plan to share his $13.9 billion fortune with the more than 100 children he has fathered when he dies.
"They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don't want them to tear each other apart after my death," Durov said.
One hundred children is a big brood, and Durov, a self-exiled Russian who lives in Dubai, explained how it came to be. He called himself the "official father" of six children whom he fathered with three different partners. The other kids came from a clinic "where I started donating sperm fifteen years ago to help a friend," adding that he has been informed that "more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries."
All of the kids will have to wait 30 years to receive their inheritances, he said, explaining, "I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account."
Dubrov said that he has been thinking of his will because his job "involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states."
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The founder faces criminal charges in France and is accused of failing to properly moderate Telegram to reduce criminal activity. Law enforcement says the app has facilitated drug trafficking, fraud, and the spread of child sexual abuse content. Dubrov calls the accusations "totally absurd" and told Le Point, "Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn't make those who run it criminals."
BBC News explains further, writing: "Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 members, which critics have argued makes it easier for misinformation to spread, and for users to share conspiracist, neo-Nazi, paedophilic, or terror-related content."
The app has a billion monthly active users.
