London – A court in the United Kingdom decided on Wednesday that the police could seize the equivalent of $3.3 million in frozen financial assets from misogynist social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan to cover years of unpaid taxes.
The money was held in seven bank accounts, frozen by British authorities, belonging to Tate, who previously lived in the UK, his brother Tristan and a woman identified by British authorities only as J.
Chief Justice Paul Goldspring at Westminster Magistrates' Court said in his ruling on Wednesday that the brothers' dealings, including transfers of almost $12 million to J, had been a “fraud simple” to avoid tax authorities.
Lawyers for Devon and Cornwall Police had argued that Tate and his brother were serial tax evaders who failed to pay any taxes on around $26.5 million in income from the businesses on- their line.
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According to the French news agency AFP, lawyer Sarah Clarke, who represented the police, said during the proceedings from a video posted online by Tate, in which he said: “When I live in England I refused to pay tax.
Tate protested the decision, accusing the government of “outright theft”.
“This is not justice; it is a coordinated attack on anyone who wants to challenge the system,” he said in a statement, claiming the seizure of his assets “raised serious questions about the lengths to which authorities will go – agreement.”
The Associated Press reported that a lawyer for the men, Martin Evans, defended the bank moves as “absolutely normal” for online business owners.
Tate gained millions of followers online before being banned by TikTok, Facebook and YouTube when the platforms accused him of posting vulgar hate speech.
Tate and his brother are currently under house arrest in Romania, where they are face criminal trafficking charges. When that case concludes, the brothers are expected to be extradited to the UK, where they face additional charges of human trafficking and rape.
The Tate brothers have denied all allegations of sexual violence and human trafficking.
