‘Brazen’ Andrew Tate and brother Tristan accused of failing to pay tax on £21m revenue from online business
8 July 2024, 12:20
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been accused of failing to pay tax on £21 million worth of revenue from an online business.
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Devon and Cornwall Police have started a civil claim against the two social media influencers, as well as a third person referred to as J.
Speaking at Westminster Magistrates Court, 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."
The Tate brothers have been accused of paying no tax on the revenue in any country, which is was earned between 2014 and 2022.
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."
The court heard he said his approach was "ignore, ignore, ignore because in the end they go away".
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The court also heard that 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".
"That's what tax evasion looks like, that's what money laundering looks like," she told the court.
The money came from products they sold online as well as their OnlyFans sites, the court was told.
The former kickboxer was arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest with his brother Tristan and two Romanian women.
The brothers were charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four - who deny the allegations - in June last year.
The Tate brothers were held in police custody during the criminal investigation from late December 2022 until April 2023, to prevent them from fleeing the country or tampering with evidence.
They were then under house arrest until August, when courts placed them under judicial control.
This means they are allowed to travel freely through Romania but cannot leave the eastern European nation.
