Andrew and Tristan Tate lose £2m court case over unpaid tax

Police can seize money from frozen accounts after ‘straightforward cheat of the revenue’, London magistrate rules

Police can seize more than £2m from the influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan after they failed to pay a penny in tax on £21m of revenue from their online businesses, the chief magistrate has ruled.

Devon and Cornwall police brought a legal case to seize the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the brothers and a woman identified only as J.

In his judgment, handed down at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday, the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, said what appeared to be a “complex financial matrix” was actually a “straightforward cheat of the revenue”.

The court previously heard the brothers paid just under $12m (£9m) 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.

Part of the money police applied to seize was cryptocurrency held in an account in J’s name.

J received a payment of £805,000 into her Revolut account, the court previously heard.

The proceedings are civil, which carries a lower standard of proof than criminal cases.

Source: The Guardian