Peter Hoskins
Business Reporter, BBC News
Getty Images
The founder of Instant messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, says the more than 100 children he fathered will share an estimated $13.9 billion (£10.3 billion) of fortune.
“They are all my children and they will all have the same rights! After my death, I don’t want them to tear each other,” Doloff told the French political magazine Le Point.
Durov says he is the “official father” of six children with three different partners, but has more than 100 other children after donating sperm to a fertility clinic.
He also repeatedly denied fraud in connection with the serious criminal charges he faces in France.
The self-exiled Russian tech giant also told the magazine that his children would not have access to their inheritance for 30 years.
“I want them to be able to live like normal people, build themselves on their own, learn to trust themselves, and create rather than relying on a bank account,” he said.
The 40-year-old said he wrote his will now because his work “involves risk – by defending freedom, he will win many enemies, including within the powerful state.”
His app, Telegram, is known for focusing on privacy and encrypted messaging, but has over 1 billion active users each month.
Durov was also arrested last year after working on criminal charges facing France and was accused of failing to properly mitigate the app to reduce crime.
He denied that he failed to cooperate with law enforcement on drug trafficking, child sexual abuse and fraud. Telegram has previously refused to be inadequate moderation.
In an interview with Le Point, he described the accusation as “completely absurd.”
“Just because criminals use our messaging services among many others, it doesn’t mean that they run criminals,” he added.
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