Police can seize more than £2million from controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after they failed to pay any tax on £21million of revenue from their online businesses, the chief magistrate has ruled.
Devon and Cornwall Police made a legal bid to seize the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tate brothers and a woman identified only as J.
In his judgment handed down at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said what appeared to be a ‘complex financial matrix’ was actually a ‘straightforward cheat of the revenue’.
Andrew Tate said in a statement that the ruling ‘is not justice’ and claimed it was a ‘co-ordinated attack’.
The statement said: ‘First, they labelled me a human trafficker, yet they couldn’t find a single woman to stand against me.
‘When that narrative crumbled, they turned to outright theft – freezing my accounts for more than two years and now seizing everything they could.
‘This is not justice; it’s a co-ordinated attack on anyone who dares to challenge the system. Speak against the Matrix, and they’ll come for your freedom, your reputation, and your livelihood. This raises serious questions about the lengths authorities will go to silence dissent.’
In his written ruling, the chief magistrate said: ‘I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that they have engaged in long-standing, deliberate conduct in order to evade their tax.’
Police can seize more than £2million from controversial influencer Andrew Tate (left) and his brother Tristan (right) over claims they failed to pay tax
Both 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 12million US dollars into an account in the name of J, even though she had no role in their businesses
He continued: ‘In my view, one need only focus on the inescapable evidential picture to determine the case.
‘The money generated by the various business were online transactions which attracted VAT in the UK and / or corporation tax to the companies and / or income tax by the respondents, and they had not so much as registered to pay or account for tax, whether personal or otherwise, let alone paid any tax.
‘That, I am satisfied, was precisely the intention of (the Tate brothers) and is unequivocally founded on the evidence before me.’
The court previously heard the brothers paid just under $12million into an account in the name of J, and opened a second account in her name even though she had no role in their businesses, including War Room, Hustlers´ University, Cobra Tate and OnlyFans between 2014 and 2022.
Part 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 her Revolut account, the court previously heard.
Devon and Cornwall Police allege that this was fraud by false misrepresentation.
In a previous hearing, Sarah Clarke KC for Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are serial tax and VAT evaders. They, in particular Andrew Tate, are brazen about it.’
Ms Clarke quoted from a video posted online by Andrew Tate, in which he said: ‘When I lived in England I refused to pay tax.’
Andrew Tate pictured leaving Bucharest Court with his brother Tristan, 35, on July 4. The pair are accused of being £21 million ‘serial tax evaders’ by Devon and Cornwall Police
The siblings, as well as a woman referred to only as J, are accused of failing to pay a penny in tax on millions of pounds of revenue earned from businesses online between 2014 and 2022
Andrew (C) and brother Tristan (back R) 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
The court heard he said his approach was ‘ignore, ignore, ignore because in the end they go away’.
Earlier this year, the court heard the brothers had ‘a huge number of bank accounts’ in the UK, seven of which have been frozen.
Ms Clarke said that money ‘washed around UK bank accounts’ that were used ‘as a mechanism for moving revenues from their business activities through a wide number of accounts’.
She told the court: ‘That’s what tax evasion looks like, that’s what money laundering looks like.’
The money came from products they sold online as well as their OnlyFans sites. The Tates are accused of failing to pay tax and money laundering in both the UK and Romania, the court heard.
Following the ruling against the Tate brothers, a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police, said: ‘Devon & Cornwall Police acknowledges the determination of Senior District Judge Goldspring and his decision to grant the force’s application.
‘From the outset we have aimed to demonstrate that Andrew and Tristan Tate evaded taxes and laundered money through bank accounts located in Devon.
‘The investigation focuses on substantial earnings accrued between 2014 and 2022, during which we believe no tax or VAT was paid on those funds.
‘Furthermore, both individuals are alleged to have concealed the origins of their income by channelling money through ‘front’ accounts, constituting criminal activity and rendering those earnings proceeds of crime.
‘We will refrain from further comment until the 28-day appeal period has concluded.’
Andrew Tate pictured leaving court in Bucharest, Romania in MArchafter a hearing
It is claimed the brothers paid just under $12 million into an account in J’s name and opened a second account in her name (pictured: Tristan Tate in Bucharest in March)
Romanian prosecutors formally indicted Tate in June along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women in a case
The proceedings are civil, which carries a lower standard of proof than criminal cases.
Gary Pons, for J, previously argued that the funds in the Gemini account were in cryptocurrency and therefore could not be frozen at that time.
The Tates are also facing a series of separate, criminal allegations in Romania, and are set to be extradited to the UK once those proceedings are concluded to face further accusations here.
They are accused of human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women in one case in Romania, in which Andrew Tate is also accused of rape.
A second more recent set of human trafficking charges saw a fleet of luxury cars towed away from their home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Bedfordshire Police secured an international arrest warrant for the brothers relating 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 bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted.
But he remains popular on X, with almost 10 million followers, many of them young men and schoolchildren.
In July, senior police officers in the UK warned that influencers like Andrew Tate could radicalise social media followers into extreme misogyny in the same way that terrorists draw in their followers.