Romanian authorities descended on a compound near Bucharest on Saturday to remove a fleet of luxury cars and other assets worth an estimated $3.9 million in the case investigating Andrew Tate, the divisive social media personality who is in custody. in the country on human trafficking charges.
Romania’s National Agency for the Management of Unavailable Assets said in a statement that it recalled a total of 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in various currencies. The total value of the assets, the agency said, is estimated at $3.9 million.
About half a dozen masked law enforcement officers and other officials arrived at the compound on Saturday to remove the goods. The fleet of cars included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a BMW, an Aston Martin, and a Mercedes-Benz.
Tate, 36, a British-American citizen who has 4.5 million Twitter followers, was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women accused of being part of an organized crime group. , human trafficking and rape.
On Tuesday, the four lost an appeal after a 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 seized by prosecutors in the case thus far.
Romania’s organized crime agency DIICOT said it seized 15 luxury vehicles in the case and identified more than 10 properties and land owned by companies registered in the names of the Tate brothers.
If prosecutors can prove they made money through illegal activities, including human trafficking, the assets could be used to cover the costs of the investigation and compensation for victims, said Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for the 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 were sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said the victims were lured under pretenses of love and then intimidated, kept under surveillance and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into acting out in pornography.
Tate, a former professional boxer who has reportedly lived in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and hate speech.
After the assets were moved on Saturday, a post appeared on Tate’s Twitter account, saying: «Anyone who thinks I’m a human trafficker is truly an asshole,» and that «anyone smart enough to understand that the American System is unfair would be aware”. blown away by the injustice of the Romanian system”.
