Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were brought on Thursday morning to the headquarters of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to witness the searches on the devices seized by investigators from their homes in December, according to Agerpres.
Upon entering the building, one of the siblings declared that the authorities have no evidence against them and that they are being persecuted because they are rich.
DIICOT prosecutors continue on Thursday the electronic device searches begun a day ago on the computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones and camera recordings seized at the end of December from the homes of the Tate brothers.
Andrew and Tristan Tate, alongside an ex-policewoman and Andrew Tate’s girlfriend are under investigation for having set up an organized crime group, for human trafficking and rape. The four have been in custody since December 30, 2022.
The brothers were running a videochat studio at their property in Ilfov County, where several girls were forced to perform in pornographic videos for dissemination on social media, supposedly for important gains.
According to the police, the Tate brothers lured the victims into believing that they wanted a marriage/cohabitation relationship (the loverboy method), but subsequently took them to the location in Ilfov County where they were subjected to physical violence and mental coercion (intimidation, constant surveillance, control and the pretence of debts) in order to yield to sexual exploitation and perform in pornographic content disseminated on social media platforms.
As part of the sex trafficking investigation, the DIICOT confiscated the assets of the Tate brothers, specifically 10 properties and a fleet of 15 luxury cars: three Porsches, two BMWs, two Ferraris, an Aston Martin, a McLaren, a Lamborghini and five Mercedes automobiles.
At the request of the DIICOT prosecutors, the National Impounded Assets Administration (ANABI) took under its administration the siblings’ luxury cars and watches, as well as various amounts of money worth a total of approximately 18 million RON (3,636,000 euros).
Agerpres
