Police can seize more than £2 million from controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after they failed to pay any tax on £21 million of income from their online businesses, the chief magistrate has ruled.
Devon and Cornwall Police made a legal attempt to seize the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tate brothers and a woman identified only as J.
In his sentencing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said what appeared to be a “complex financial matrix” was in fact a “direct revenue trap”.
The court previously heard the brothers paid just under $12 million into an account in J’s name, and opened a second account in her name even though she had no role in their businesses, which include War Room, Hustlers’ University , Cobra Tate and Fans between 2014 and 2022.
Some of the money the force applied to seize was cryptocurrency held in an account in J’s name. J also received a payment of £805,000 into his Revolut account, the court previously heard.
Devon and Cornwall Police allege it was fraud by misrepresentation.
Sarah Clarke KC, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said in July: ‘Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are serial tax and VAT evaders. They, particularly Andrew Tate, are shameless about it.
Ms Clarke cited a video posted online by Andrew Tate, in which he said: “When I lived in England I refused to pay taxes.”
Police may seize more than £2million from controversial influencer Andrew Tate (left) and his brother Tristan (right) over allegations they failed to pay taxes.
Andrew and Tate can be seen arriving at the Bucharest Court of Appeal on December 10.
The court previously heard the brothers paid just under US$12 million into an account in J’s name, even though she had no role in their businesses.
The court heard he said his approach was to “ignore, ignore, ignore because eventually they go away.”
Earlier this year, the court heard that the brothers had “a large number of bank accounts” in the UK, seven of which have been frozen.
Ms Clarke said the money was “flowing through UK bank accounts” which were used “as a mechanism to move income from their trading activities across a wide number of accounts”.
She told the court: “That’s what tax evasion is like, that’s what money laundering is like.”
The money came from products they sold online, as well as their Onlyfans sites. The Tates are accused of non-payment of taxes and money laundering in both the UK and Romania, the court heard.
The proceedings are civil, which carries a lower standard of proof than criminal cases.
J’s Gary Pons previously argued that the funds in the Gemini account were in cryptocurrency and therefore could not be frozen at that time.
The Tates also face a series of separate criminal charges in Romania and will be extradited to the UK once those proceedings conclude to face further charges here.
Andrew Tate pictured leaving the Bucharest court with his brother Tristan, 35, on July 4. Devon and Cornwall Police accuse the couple of being “serial tax evaders” worth £21 million.
The brothers, as well as a woman referred to only as J, are accused of not paying a single penny in tax on millions of pounds of income earned from online businesses between 2014 and 2022.
Andrew (C) and his brother Tristan (behind) speak to journalists after being released from detention in Bucharest, Romania, on March 12, 2024.
The money came from products the brothers sold online, as well as their Onlyfans sites.
Andrew Tate photographed leaving court in Bucharest, Romania, in March after a hearing
The brothers are alleged to have paid just under $12 million into an account in J’s name and opened a second account in his name (pictured: Tristan Tate in Bucharest in March).
Romanian prosecutors formally charged Tate in June along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women in one case.
They are accused of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women in a case in Romania, in which Andrew Tate is also accused of rape.
In a second, more recent set of human trafficking charges, a fleet of luxury cars was towed away from his home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Bedfordshire Police have obtained an international arrest warrant for the brothers in relation to allegations of rape and human trafficking dating back to 2012-2015, which they deny.
Andrew Tate has been banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook after the platforms accused him of posting hate speech and misogynistic comments, including that women should take responsibility for being sexually assaulted.
But he remains popular on X, with almost 10 million followers, many of them young people and schoolchildren.
In July, senior UK police officials warned that influencers like Andrew Tate could radicalise social media followers into extreme misogyny in the same way terrorists attract their followers.