BUCHAREST – Romanian authorities arrived at a compound near Bucharest on Saturday to tow 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 jailed in country for human trafficking.
Romania’s National Agency for Unavailable Asset Management said in a statement that it had removed a total of 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and multi-currency cash. The total value of the goods, according to the agency, is estimated at 3.6 million euros ($3.9 million).
About half a dozen masked law enforcement officers and other officials arrived at the site Saturday to take away the goods. The automobile fleet included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a BMW, an Aston Martin and a Mercedes-Benz.
Tate, 36, a British-American national who has 4.5million followers on Twitter, was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women on charges of membership in an organized criminal group, human trafficking and rape.
On Tuesday, all four lost an appeal after a court case confirmed December 30 of a judge persuade them to extend their detention from 24 hours to 30 days. Tate a day later lost another appeal the contested assets seized by prosecutors in the previous case.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT said it had seized 15 luxury vehicles in the case and identified more than 10 properties and land owned by companies registered with the Tate brothers.
If prosecutors can show they made money from illegal activities, including human trafficking, the assets could be used to help cover the costs of the investigation and compensate victims, said Ramona Bolla, a DIICOT spokeswoman.
DIICOT said it identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and psychological coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
The agency said the victims were lured by feigned love and were later intimidated, monitored and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into appearing in pornography.
Tate, a former professional kickboxer who has reportedly been based in Romania since 2017, was previously banned from various 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 that read: “Anyone who thinks I’m a human trafficker really is an idiot” and that “anyone smart enough to understand that the American system is unfair, overwhelmed by the injustice of the Romanian system.”
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Stephen McGrath reported from Sighisoara.
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