Romanian authorities seize $5.2M of Andrew Tate’s assets, including luxury cars

Romanian authorities say they have seized goods and money worth about 3.6 million euros ($5.2 million Cdn) as part of a criminal investigation into human trafficking allegations that led to the arrest of social media influencer and misogynist Andrew Tate.

Romania’s National Agency for the Administration of Assets Ora Ana said in a statement that it removed a total of 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in several currencies.

About half a dozen law enforcement officers and other officials descended on the complex to retrieve the items. The fleet of cars includes a blue Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz.

Tate, 36, a British-US citizen with 4.5 million followers on Twitter, was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women on charges of being part of an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.

On Tuesday, all four lost their appeals after the court upheld a judge’s December 30 decision to extend their detention from 24 hours to 30 days. A day later, Tate lost another appeal challenging the assets prosecutors have seized in the case so far.

Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said it has seized 15 luxury vehicles in the case, and identified more than 10 properties and land owned by a company registered to the Tate brothers.

Allegations of human trafficking

If prosecutors can prove they earned money through illegal activities including human trafficking, those assets can be used to cover the costs of investigations and compensation for victims, said Ramona Bolla, spokeswoman for DIICOT.

DIICOT said it has identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime syndicate.

The agency said the victims were tricked by pretenses of love, and then intimidated, constantly monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being forced to engage in pornography.

Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer who is a contestant on a British reality show Big Brothergained notoriety for misogynistic and hate speech.

He said he was banned from all major social media platforms, although his Twitter account was reactivated in November after Elon Musk acquired the platform.

Tate, who holds US and British citizenship, said women were partly responsible for being raped and that he was a man.

After the asset was moved on Saturday, a post appeared on Tate’s Twitter account, which read: “Anyone who believes that I am a human trafficker is an idiot,” and “anyone who is smart enough to know the American System is unfair, will think so. blown away by the injustice of the Romanian System.”