Customs officials reportedly charge actor €35,000 after alleged failure to declare item intended for climate charity auction

Customs officials reportedly charge actor €35,000 after alleged failure to declare item intended for climate charity auction

Arnold Schwarzenegger was briefly held by customs officers at Munich airport on Wednesday after allegedly failing to declare a €26,000 (£22,000) Audemars Piguet watch the Terminator star was planning to sell at an auction in aid of his climate crisis charity.

The Austrian-born actor and former governor of California, 76, was stopped at the airport for about three hours upon arrival from Los Angeles, according to the German tabloid Bild, which quoted customs officials.

Schwarzenegger was taken aside by officers who searched his luggage and found the watch, which the actor had allegedly not declared on his arrivals customs form.

A spokesperson for the main customs office in Munich said: “We have initiated criminal tax proceedings. The watch should have been registered because it is an import.” We

  • Moghul@lemmy.world
    922·
    10 months ago

    offered to pay the charge with his credit card, but German customs rules require half of the charge to be paid in cash.

    What a stupid fucking law.

    He should’ve had that shit looked at though, especially being a public person.

    • geissi@feddit.deEnglish
      12·
      10 months ago

      but German customs rules require half of the charge to be paid in cash.

      What a stupid fucking law.

      Never heard of such a rule.
      Afaik the reason why he couldn’t pay with card was that the card reader was broken.

  • The Pantser@lemmy.world
    311·
    10 months ago

    Poor guy, he fought so hard to stop the AI only to live long enough to see it’s rise anyways.

  • anonionfinelyminced@kbin.social
    221·
    10 months ago

    I seem to recall high end watches being a way to avoid carrying large amounts of cash across borders. Maybe even for money laundering (although that seems cumbersome).

    People can carry tens or hundreds of thousands across borders in their luggage as personal wardrobe accessories. Once they arrive at their destination, find a dealer who will buy a watch for cash and they have loads of local currency without paying bank transaction fees or getting government haircuts.

    Not that I think that’s what’s going on here, but it may be the media shining a spotlight on it for some reason.

  • Mrs_deWinter@feddit.de
    42·
    10 months ago

    I’d be more upset if the headline read “Arnold Schwarzenegger commited tax fraud but was let through because he’s famous”

  • sleepyTonia@programming.devEnglish
    14·
    10 months ago

    Is this a German thing? I’ve traveled many times between Canada and the USA and never had to fill any customs form.
    Edit: Boy oh boy. I thought Reddit was the toxic place, but can’t ask a damn question in here without getting slammed with downvotes?

    • whereisk@lemmy.world
      12·
      10 months ago

      Most countries dislike people registered as tourists carrying products intended for commerce. In this instance it was intended for auctioning even with the proceedings going to a charitable org but maybe the German law doesn’t make a distinction (it seems an edge case that possibly wouldn’t have been codified).

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
      5·
      10 months ago

      There’s a threshold for declaration at the US-Canada border too. Your odds of getting searched in a car at the canada-us border are low, though.