A court in the UK ruled that British police may seize more than 2 million pounds ($2.54 million) from misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan.
The Devon and Cornwall police classified the brothers, who are in Romania facing charges of human trafficking and sex with minors, as “serial” tax evaders. Andrew is also facing rape charges.
The funds may be drawn from several frozen accounts in the brothers’ names as well as an unidentified third perpetrator, a woman called J. in court documents.
Tate say ruling ‘not justice’
Tate and his brother had failed to pay taxes on some 21 million pounds in profit from their online businesses, such as War Room, Hustlers’ University, Cobra Tate and OnlyFans, between 2014 and 2022.
At the heart of the case was a suspicious $12 million transaction from the brothers to an account owned by J.
The court saw a video posted by Tate online where he can be heard saying “when I lived in England, I refused to pay tax.”
Defense lawyer Martin Evans had tried to argue that it was “entirely orthodox” for people who run online businesses to carry out transfers of such large amounts.
In a statement on Wednesday, Andrew Tate said: “This is not justice; it’s a coordinated attack on anyone who dares
to challenge the system.”
Banned from social media, assets frozen
The case in the UK was a civil trial, which carries a lower burden of proof than the criminal proceedings currently pending against the brothers in both Britain and Romania.
Dual British-US citizens Andrew Tate, 38, and his brother, 36, amassed millions of followers on social media sites with their aggressive “manosphere” content.
Following their arrests, they have been banned from TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook and have had most of their assets and bank accounts frozen.
es/lo (AP, AFP)