Controversial influencer Andrew Tate had millions of pounds laundered through British bank accounts run by a woman linked to an ex-girlfriend, according to court documents.
The woman, whose accounts were traced to a property in the West Country, transferred as much as $12million (almost £10million) through four accounts, an investigation has found.
Tate, 38, and his younger brother Tristan, 36, are said to have used the money to fund their lavish lifestyle of which they boast on social media, including mansions in Romania and supercars.
It is estimated that about £1.3million came from British customers of two of Tate’s businesses, Hustlers University and The War Room. Both courses are aimed at young men and allegedly teach them how to manipulate women into sex work.
According to legal files seen by The Sunday Times, as police in the UK and Romania started probing Tate and his brother Tristan in 2022, the woman known only as ‘J’ moved £805,000 of their money using a cryptocurrency account.
It comes after Devon and Cornwall Police launched a civil court case in which they successfully obtained a series of asset forfeiture orders last month.
This enabled them to seize about £2.7million that was being held in accounts run by J and the Tate brothers for the purposes of evading tax.
The two brothers are at the centre of two Romanian police investigations over alleged sex trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. Both strongly deny the charges.
Last week, Tate’s spokesman revealed that the influencer had been released from house arrest for the first time in five months on Tuesday. The brothers and four other suspects were put under house arrest when prosecutors launched the second criminal investigation.
A first, separate case was sent back to prosecutors by the Court of Appeals in Bucharest for the second time in December, saying it could not proceed in its current form.
In that case, the brothers were accused of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women. They deny these claims too, as well as those of rape and human trafficking that have been made against them in the UK.
Now, UK court files show that Tate used his British accounts to pay almost £500,000 to Georgiana Naghel, an alleged accomplice in Romania who is thought to be another former girlfriend.
Although Tate is no longer under house arrest, he is still subject to travel restrictions.
He also faces a legal battle with Northern Ireland MP Sorcha Eastwood, whose lawyers announced they would be launching proceedings against the Tate brothers over offensive social media posts.
The Sunday Times reports how, in 2023, lawyers representing J won a battle to grant their client anonymity.
At the time, Devon and Cornwall Police had launched their case that the Tates and J sought to deliberately hide £21million which had passed through seven financial accounts in the UK and Romania.
It was alleged that two were run by J, four by Andrew and one by Tristan, all of which were frozen.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court last July, Sarah Clarke KC, representing the police force, said: ‘Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are serial tax and VAT evaders. They – in particular Andrew Tate – are brazen about it.’
The police said in their application: ‘The movement of money defies commercial logic, and instead has all the hallmarks of money laundering.’
A judge ruled in December that police could seize £2.7million on the basis that the Tates had sought to cheat the revenue.
It was found that the Tate used J to hide their true earnings, with the judge saying: ‘The use of J was to hide the fact that the money was connected to the brothers for precisely this reason.’
The Sunday Times has uncovered how J is connected to Tate through a former girlfriend. She is said to have played a major role in his finances, starting with setting up an account in her name on the payment platform Stripe.
Tate, a former kickboxer and Big Brother contestant, shot to fame on social media, finding an online audience with his controversial posts about women.
He later started to advertise his ‘PHD course’ – ‘Pimping Hoes Degree’ – and his Hustlers University Platform, courses aimed at young boys and men.
Around the same time, Tate launched The War Room, for which members pay £6,500.
The secretive society, touted as teaching men physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial development, has been accused of grooming women into online sex work.
Tate also made money from customers wanting to watch women on webcams. He once claimed that 75 women worked at him, making him £400,000 per month.
In July 2019, Tate faced allegations of rape and abuse. Police in Hertfordshire passed a file to the CPS but they chose not to prosecute.
When J opened her Stripe account, payments from subscribers to Hustlers University and The War Room started to come in. Tate made £10million in three and a half years, with the funds pouring into J’s account.
About £1.3million is said to have come from British customers.
The Stripe cash was then transferred to the Tate’s personal accounts, allowing them to fund a life of luxury with supercars such as Bugattis, Lamborghinis and McLarens as well as two Romanian properties.
Court papers show that the money was also used for surveillance and security as well as to ‘to pay co-defendants and expenses connected with the offences for which they are currently indicted in Romania’.
It is also alleged that Tate was profiting from sex work, with £4.7million transferred between his personal accounts with the reference ‘Rev Only Fans’, an apparent nod to the money made from the porn website used by sex workers.
In June 2022, court files seen by the Sunday Times show that J opened a cryptocurrency account with an exchange called Gemini using her identity document and address.
Tate was also listed as an interested party on the account, which likely allowed him to view an account and make withdrawals. That same month, Stripe banned Tate’s businesses.
On the same day, June 22, £805,000 was moved from J’s Stripe account to her personal account, run by Revolut.
J divided these funds into sums between £1,000 and £100,000 and transferred it to Tate’s personal Revolut account.
She also transferred £75,000 to the Gemini account and the same amount to a separate crypto account, also in her name, with the firm Kraken. Further transactions totalling £225,000 were moved into this account.
Money was later withdrawn from the Gemini account until it was closed in October 2022.
Tate and his brother were arrested in Romania in December 2022.
By the time Devon and Cornwall Police froze all seven accounts, just £2.68million of the £21million remained – while £1.46million was in J’s Stripe account and £70,000 in her Gemini account.
The Tate brothers provided no evidence to refute the application in court such as tax returns or financial records.
But their team said the evidence ‘simply demonstrates the legitimate earnings from online sites controlled by them and legitimate and transparent movement of those funds’ which ‘does not demonstrate any criminality’.
Lawyers for the Tate brothers declined to comment to The Sunday Times.
MailOnline has contacted the Tates’ lawyers.
A spokesman for the brothers said: ‘When you speak against power there is a fundamental shift in the practise of “law”. It’s no longer, “Here’s the crime now find the man”.
‘It becomes, “Here’s the man now find the crime”. This is a setup.’
A judge concluded that the Tates’ ‘entire financial arrangements are consistent with concerted tax evasion and money laundering’ and that the money in the accounts was not declared in the UK or Romania.
Tate said at the time the ruling was ‘not justice’ and described it as a ‘co-ordinated attack’.
Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘From the outset we have aimed to demonstrate that Andrew and Tristan Tate evaded taxes and laundered money through bank accounts located in Devon.
‘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.’
