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Prosecutors say the Tate brothers owned a "cache" of fake passports
Andrew and Tristan Tate face a combined total of 59 criminal charges in the United Kingdom. If they are actually innocent as they’ve long maintained they are, the names they chose for their fake passports certainly don’t back that up.
According to court documents cited by British prosecutors in the brothers’ Florida bond hearing, the Tate brothers possessed a cache of fake passports under various aliases. One of them, a Mexican passport for Tristan Tate, used the alias “Vladimir Scorpius” — the name of the villainous arms dealer and cult leader from the 1988 James Bond novel Scorpius.
The fake passports were from various countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Estonia, Nigeria, Poland, and the obscure Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
The Tate brothers were found to have a cache of fake passports, including one using the name of a James Bond villain
Not only did Tristan Tate have a passport with the Bond alias, but he also posted a video online of himself declaring “I’m Vladimir Scorpius” and registered a UK company called “Scorpius Ltd.” Additionally, his brother Andrew bragged on social media about having “8 lives … 8 licenses and passports,” and evading authorities in multiple countries.
Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested by US Marshals in Miami on Saturday, July 19, on a UK extradition warrant and are facing charges of r—, sex trafficking, and related offenses in the United Kingdom. The Tates remain in federal custody pending the outcome of their extradition case.
In addition to the charges in the UK — British prosecutors filed 38 new charges against them that they allege occurred between 2010 and 2017 in the area north of London where they grew up — the Tate brothers also face charges of trafficking in Romania.
In the new series of allegations, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service charged Andrew with seven further counts of r–, sex trafficking and indecent images of a child, while Tristan’s charges included two counts of r— and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.
“Andrew and Tristan Tate are accused of some of the most serious offences, including multiple counts of rape and human trafficking. It is time they face justice,” Lawyer Matt Jury, who represents several alleged British victims of Andrew, said in a statement following the pair’s arrest.
If extradited and convicted on even a fraction of the UK charges, both brothers face the possibility of life imprisonment under English law. Since their arrest and while they await their potential extradition, they are being held at FCI Miami, a low-security federal correctional institution in Miami-Dade County.