Romanian prosecutors confiscate luxury cars seized in Andrew Tate case

VOLUNTARI, Romania, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Romanian authorities began removing luxury cars from a property near the capital on Saturday as part of a criminal investigation into alleged human trafficking that led to the arrest of controversial internet personality Andrew Tate.

Romanian organized crime prosecutors arrested Tate, her brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects on December 29 for forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit six women. They denied wrongdoing.

A Reuters reporter saw several cars, including a Rolls-Royce, a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz, being pulled from the Tate compound on the outskirts of the capital, Bucharest, to be transported to storage.

Earlier this week, prosecutors told Reuters they had seized 15 luxury vehicles and more than 10 properties and homes belonging to the suspects in Bucharest and Prahova and Brasov counties to prevent the assets from being sold or concealed.

Tate’s attorney was not immediately available for comment.

The four suspects challenged their 30-day arrest warrant earlier this week, but the Bucharest Court of Appeal dismissed the challenge and said they should remain in custody.

Tate, a former contestant on British reality TV show Big Brother, has gained notoriety for his misogynistic remarks and hate speech.

His remarks got him banned from all major social media platforms, although his Twitter account became active again in November after the platform was acquired by Elon Musk.

Tate, who holds US and UK citizenship, said the women are partly responsible for the rape and belong to the men.

(This story has been corrected to clarify that cars should first be removed from a property near the capital, not all sites, in the first paragraph)

Reporting by Octav Ganea Writing by Anna Koper Editing by Helen Popper

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