Andrew Tate’s £10million fortune seized by Romanian cops

Romanian police have revealed details of Andrew Tate’s wealth as they today indicted him and three others on human trafficking and rape charges.

Despite the misogynist influencer previously claiming to be a ‘trillionaire’, a press release from Romania‘s anti-organised crime prosecution’s unit DIICOT suggested Tate’s true fortune was more likely around £10 million.

As part of the indictment, prosecutors ordered the confiscation of luxury assets from the Tate brothers including 15 high-value cars, 14 luxury watches and about £440,000 held in cryptocurrency, the agency’s statement said.

DIICOT has been investigating Tate, his brother Tristan and two female Romanian acquaintances –  Luana Radu and Georgiana Naghel – since last year.

The agency ‘ordered the indictment’ of the four defendants for offences, including ‘setting up an organised criminal group… trafficking in persons… rape’, they said.

The four were arrested on December 29 and held until March 31 before a Bucharest court put them under house arrest. Earlier this month, DIICOT notified the Tate brothers that the human trafficking charge had changed to trafficking in continued form, a DIICOT spokesperson said on June 13. 

They have now been formally indicted, which means they will appear before a judge. The trial will not start immediately, and could take several years.

Andrew Tate has also been charged with raping one of the victims, while his brother Tristan has been charged with instigating others to violence. The brothers and female associates have denied all allegations of abuse and trafficking.

Investigators are also continuing to probe their finances, with investigations on-going into alleged money laundering linked to the brothers. 

In total, the assets seized by DIICOT are estimated to be worth around £10 million, according to The Sun Online, citing sources.

While still a significant amount of money, it is much less than Tate has previously claimed to be worth. In the past, he has bragged about a fortune ranging from £100 million to being the self-proclaimed ‘world’s first trillionaire.’

The DIICOT indictment suggests his fortune is much smaller, however.

According to the source quoted by The Sun Online: ‘The biggest assets of Tate brothers are their cars – which are estimated to be around £8 million.

‘Their houses and lands are also estimated at more than £2 million,’ they added.

‘As for their account,’ the source told the publication, ‘further investigations are to be made, as there is also another file on their names for money laundering, a file which is far from being ended.’

The assets listed in the indictment include: ’15 lands and buildings located within the [Romanian regions] of Ilfov, Prahova and Braşov, 15 luxury cars, 14 luxury watches, 2 ingots and a medal, the social shares owned within 4 commercial companies.’

It said the shares within four commercial companies were in different currencies, in the amounts of 86,580 Romanian lei (£15,000), 52,650 euros (£45,000), 17,430 US dollars (£13,500) and 10,370 British pounds – a total of around £84,000.

Prosecutors have also seized Tate’s cryptocurrency holdings, which it listed as just over 21 bitcoin, worth around £440,000 as of June 20, 2023. This was listed as being valued at $380,000 in the indictment, which may have been based on an exchange rate that is now out-of-date.

In its press release listing the assets, DIICOT also said the Tates would have to pay an advanced legal fee of £52,000 ahead of the trial.

Responding to a tweet which appeared to mis-translate DIICOT’s estimated value of his crypto assets, Tate accused prosecutors of ‘stealing his wealth’.

‘I’m sure this case has absolutely nothing to do with stealing my wealth,’ he wrote, after the Twitter user claimed he had $380 million worth of crypto assets seized.

When translated online, the amount listed in the indictment – written in Romanian – appeared to be the $380m cited by the user, but that was an incorrect translation of how commas and dots are used in Romanian media when writing numbers.

Tate grew his social media presence by flaunting his muscles, cigars and fast cars –  fascinating millions, particularly teenage boys.

He often posed with luxury cars, including a Bugatti Veron in a photo which caused him to go viral in December – days before his arrest – when he launched a bizarre Twitter attack on climate change activist Greta Thunberg. 

‘Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions’, he wrote to her, posting a photo of him filling the Bugatti with petrol. Thunberg’s crushing reply referencing his ‘smalld*ckenergy’ was retweeted over 570,000 times. 

Before that, pictures showed Tate’s car collection at their $600,000 compound on the outskirts of Bucharest – including a Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and a Rolls Royce.

However, in a podcast before his arrest Tate actually denied that he owned any of the luxury cars, implying his Bugatti was actually owned through a series of companies and trusts that gave him access to the supercar.

Tate’s case is expected to go to trial in September, but could take several years.

Under Romanian law, the case gets sent to the court’s preliminary chamber, where a judge has 60 days to inspect the case files to ensure legality. 

Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage.

This accusation was laid out in a press release on Tuesday about the indictment.

‘The injured persons were recruited by the foreign nationals, by misleading them about the intention to establish a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of real feelings of love (the loverboy method),’ the release says.

The indictment says the alleged victims were ‘transported and housed in buildings in Ilfov county where, by exercising acts of physical violence and mental coercion (through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts), they were sexually exploited by group members by forcing them to perform demonstrations pornographic in order to produce and disseminate through some social media platforms materials having such a character.’

It goes on to say that the seven injured persons identified during the criminal investigation were subjected to forced labour’.

It adds that of the seven who were also ‘sexually exploited by the organised criminal group, three became civil parties in the criminal process.’

‘Regarding the crime of rape,’ the indictment says, ‘it was noted that, in March 2022, an injured person was forced by one of the defendants, through the exercise of physical violence and mental pressure, to repeatedly have sexual relations (two material acts).’

It also accused the defendants of violence against the one ‘injured persons’, citing an October 2021 incident in which one – who wanted to stop making pornographic material and leave the Ilfov property – was attacked.

It also accused the defendants of illegally accessing a computer system and altering ‘the integrity of the computer data’ of one of the alleged victims.

It said the defendants ‘posted on the social media account belonging to her the materials that – obtained in this way, which depicted her in compromising poses’. 

In a statement to MailOnline, a representative for the brothers said their primary focus now ‘will be to establish the truth and ensure a fair and impartial examination of the evidence the legal team will submit’.

‘The indictment now allows us to present a comprehensive body of evidence, diligently collected and prepared over time, which will undoubtedly substantiate the brothers’ claims of innocence. Tate’s legal team are prepared to cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities, presenting all necessary evidence to exonerate the brothers and expose any misinterpretations or false accusations,’ they said.

‘We express our gratitude to all those who have stood by us, supporting our clients during this challenging time.

‘We request the media and the public to exercise patience and refrain from making premature judgements until all the facts are presented in a court of law, and respect the basic principle of democracy, the presumption of innocence.’

Tate’s controversial output has made him one of the world’s best-known influencers. 

Tate founded the so-called Hustler’s University, where he promises to teach paying students ‘the secrets that ONLY the wealthiest people know’.

Tate and his brother Tristan were once ‘broke as a joke’ but are now ‘self-made multi-millionaires’, he writes on his site.

Tate has denied any wrongdoing and is continuing to dispense his wisdom on Twitter, where he has grown from 4.8 million to 6.9 million followers since January. 

Tate was born in the United States in 1986 and has US citizenship, according to his website. But after his parents separated, he grew up with his mother and brother in Luton, an economically depressed town north of London. 

He has lived in Romania for several years.

Before his rise to fame on social media and subsequent arrest, Tate was a professional kickboxer who gained the title of world champion.

He first came to wider attention by appearing as a contestant on the ‘Big Brother’ reality show in the UK in 2016. But he was quickly ejected after a video emerged showing him hitting a woman.

After that he focused on building his online presence.

In August last year, he was banned from social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, for misogynist messages. His Twitter account was allowed back, however, after Elon Musk bought the company.

He now runs a paid social networking platform called his ‘war room’, whose ‘mission’ he describes as helping ‘all men to become the very best versions of themselves’.

‘All men should be strong’, he repeatedly states.

However, his comments on women have proved the most controversial.

‘There’s no such thing as an independent female’, he said in a podcast. ‘Unless she has a man directing her. She’s gonna f**k it up’.

He also said: ‘I’m a realist and when you’re a realist, you’re sexist’.

He describes how he would hit a woman who accused him of cheating on her and says that women who are assaulted or raped are to blame.

But his Twitter messages since his arrest have been very different.

He now quotes Nelson Mandela and the Koran. Having declared himself an atheist, he said in October that he had converted to Islam.

In January he appeared in court in Bucharest in handcuffs, carrying a book that appeared to be the Koran.

He indicated on Twitter on March 23 that he was observing Ramadan, during which Muslims abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset.

He wrote that when he was given food ‘I spend my entire day destroying the flies and ants who get close to the meal’ until the sun goes down when ‘in accordance’ with Ramadan, ‘I eat the stone cold food in my cell by myself.’