Court orders return of cars seized from Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan in Romania

Lawyers for Andrew and Tristan Tate confirmed on Tuesday, October 1, that the court had ordered the return of the cars seized from the two, worth over 4 million euros, News.ro reported. The cars include two McLarens, four Ferraris, a Maybach, a Maserati and a Lamborghini Huracan.

The two brothers were placed under house arrest in August pending a second investigation into allegations of forming an organized criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking in minors, sex with minors and money laundering.

Romanian prosecutors at DIICOT allege that the brothers, together with members of a criminal group formed around them, recruited 34 women starting in 2015 and forced them to produce pornographic material, which they distributed online for a fee.

“The material gain from the sexual exploitation of the victims was estimated at over $2.8 million and 887,000 tokens,” DIICOT said, citing News.ro.

One of the Tate brothers is suspected of obtaining $1.5 million through the exploitation of a young woman, a foreign citizen who was 17 at the time of her recruitment. The same defendant was accused of repeatedly having sexual relations with a 15-year-old underage victim starting in December 2020.

The two brothers are also accused of using intimidation to force the exploited women either not to testify or to give false statements.

“In order to conceal or conceal the illegal origin of the funds generated from human trafficking, the two defendants purchased and registered four luxury cars in the names of close associates between December 2023 and July 2024. “In addition, they have obviously carried out intimidating actions and acts of bribery towards some victims and witnesses in order to prevent them from testifying or to persuade them to give false statements in the current case,” DIICOT explained.

As part of the process, authorities seized the brothers' shares in five companies, the companies' bank accounts and four of those companies' cars. In addition, 11 properties in Brașov and Ilfov counties, as well as five developed properties worth over 2.5 million euros, were also confiscated. A total of 16 luxury cars and one motorcycle were confiscated.

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(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)