Featured Image Credit: Andrei Pungovschi/Getty Images/DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Social Media, Elon Musk, Court, Crime, Money
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Social Media, Elon Musk, Court, Crime, Money
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan could have $3.4 million seized by British police after failing to declare and pay their taxes.
A London judge made the ruling at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday (December 18) in what is the latest legal scandal to rock the controversial social media personalities.
The Tates did not pay a cent in tax on $26.5 million (£21 million) of revenue from their online businesses - including War Room, Hustlers’ University, Cobra Tate and OnlyFans - between 2014 and 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
The money was held across seven frozen bank accounts belonging to the Tates and an unidentified woman.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said the Tates had been liable to register with the tax authorities and declare and pay tax on revenue in Britain and/or Romania, where they have called home since 2017.
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He found that Andrew and Tristan Tate's 'entire financial arrangements are consistent with concerted tax evasion and money laundering'.
He added: "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that they have engaged in long-standing, deliberate conduct in order to evade their tax/VAT liabilities in both jurisdictions."
Andrew Tate - who is banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for sharing hate speech and misogynistic views - hit back at the ruling, declaring it a 'co-ordinated attack'.
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He said in a statement, as per Reuters: “First, they labelled me a human trafficker, yet they couldn’t find a single woman to stand against me.
“When that narrative crumbled, they turned to outright theft — freezing my accounts for more than two years and now seizing everything they could. This is not justice; it’s a co-ordinated attack on anyone who dares to challenge the system."
He continued: “Speak against the Matrix, and they’ll come for your freedom, your reputation, and your livelihood. This raises serious questions about the lengths authorities will go to silence dissent.”
At an earlier hearing, Sarah Clarke KC, representing Devon and Cornwall Police, quoted from a video posted online by Andrew Tate in which he said: “When I lived in England I refused to pay tax.”
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The court previously heard he said his approach was 'ignore, ignore, ignore because in the end they go away'.
The Tates are already facing human trafficking charges in Romania after being accused last year of forming a criminal gang to exploit women. Andrew Tate is also accused of rape.
A second more recent set of human trafficking charges saw a fleet of luxury cars towed away from their home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
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Despite his social media ban, Andrew Tate remains popular on the Elon Musk-owned platform X, with almost 10 million followers. Many of these are young men and schoolchildren.