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Towed away: Andrew Tate's Ferrari and 14 other luxury cars are now owned by the authorities
Photo: DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFP
Romanian authorities entered a compound near Bucharest on Saturday to seize a fleet of luxury cars and other assets worth an estimated €3.6 million as part of the Andrew Tate investigation.
A statement said she seized a total of 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in multiple currencies.
About half a dozen masked police officers and other officers stormed the premises to take the goods.
The fleet included a blue Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a BMW, an Aston Martin and a Mercedes-Benz.
Organized crime, human trafficking, rape
Tate, 36, a British-American national, was arrested in Bucharest on December 29 along with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women on charges of belonging to an organized crime group, human trafficking and rape.
On Tuesday, all four lost an appeal after a court upheld a judge's Dec. 30 decision to extend their detention from 24 hours to 30 days.
A day later, Tate lost another appeal challenging the assets previously seized by prosecutors in the case.
The Romanian Agency for Combating Organized Crime (DIICOT) said it had seized 15 luxury vehicles in the case and identified more than 10 properties and land owned by companies registered to the Tate brothers.
If prosecutors can prove the brothers made money from illegal activities, including human trafficking, the assets could be used to cover investigation costs and compensate victims, said Ramona Bolla, a spokeswoman for DIICOT.
»Psychological violence and physical coercion«
According to DIICOT, it has identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were subjected to "physical violence and psychological coercion" and sexually exploited by members of the alleged criminal group.
According to the agency, the victims were lured under the pretense of love and later intimidated, monitored and subjected to other controls while being forced to act in porn.
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 sexist views and hate speech.
After the assets were confiscated 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 "Anyone smart enough to understand that the American system is unfair will be overwhelmed by the injustice of the Romanian system.«
czl/AP