Romanian police seize assets worth £3m in Andrew Tate case as luxury cars towed
Jailed influencer lost an appeal against seizures in Bucharest
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Your support makes all the difference.Romanian authorities said they have seized up to £3.22m ($3.95m)of goods and money in the investigation that led to the arrest of controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate.
The past week has seen the seizure of 29 movable assets, including luxury cars and watches, and various amounts of cash in different currencies, the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assests said.
Photographs from Mr Tate’s Bucharest estate show cars including a Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini and Porsche, being loaded onto transport vans on Saturday.
Mr Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects were detained on 29 December on charges of human trafficking, rape and organised crime, after six women alleged that the group exploited them sexually. They have denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors earlier said they had seized more than 10 homes and properties belonging to the suspects.
Mr Tate last week lost an appeal against the seizure of his property. He also lost an appeal alongside the other detainees against their 30-day arrest warrant.
Romanian crime agency DIICOT said Mr Tate and his co-accused lured women in by feigning affection for them before pushing them through coercive methods into performing in pornographic content to make money for the suspects.
Bogdan Stancu, Mr Tate’s head of security, said more than 100 women passed through the internet personality’s compound in Bucharest in the past two years.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Stancu was dismissive of the women, most of whom he said were under 25.
“Some of the girls misunderstood the reality and believed [they would] be his next wife,” the bodyguard said.
“When they realised the reality, it’s easy to transform from a friend into an enemy, and make a statement to the police.”
He added: “They’re young and stupid.” He also claimed that the women were often “too drunk” or “making problems”.
The bodyguard defended his former boss, saying he “always believed him”, but claimed that the former kickboxer suffered from “something similar” to paranoia and believed “somebody wanted to hurt him”.
Mr Tate, a former kickboxer and contestant on the UK reality show Big Brother, gained notoriety for misogynistic remarks and hate speech.
His remarks got him banned from all major social media platforms, although his Twitter account became active again in November after Elon Musk acquired the platform and has grown an audience of more than 4.5m followers.
Mr Tate, who holds US and British nationality, has claimed to be a misogynist and said women are partially responsible for being raped and belong to men.
His appeal to boys and young men has caused concern with authorities, notably in Britain, where teachers said they found teenage pupils thought Mr Tate had been treated unfairly and had his views misrepresented.
Associated Press contributed to this report