Famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger faced a bit of hassle at Munich airport recently. Why? Well, it turns out he was carrying a fancy watch worth $21,000, and this initiated criminal tax proceedings’
Sources say the 76-year-old star was held up by airport customs because of this expensive watch. He might have been planning to auction it off for charity in Austria. The watch, from a brand called Audemars Piguet, should have been declared when brought into the country, leading to the initiation of “criminal tax proceedings.”
Munich’s customs spokesman Thomas Meister told Bild, the outlet that broke the news, that their agency had “initiated criminal tax proceedings” because the watch “should have been registered” since it in an “import.”
Schwarzenegger was “never asked to fill out a declaration form” the source says.
Despite the inconvenience, Schwarzenegger remained calm and answered all questions from the customs officers. A photo shows him smiling, holding the watch’s box, wearing an American flag jacket.
To sort out the tax matter, Schwarzenegger agreed to pre-pay potential taxes, but there were problems with the credit card machine.
Schwarzenegger was then brought to a bank to withdraw from the ATM, but the amount needed exceeded the funds and the bank was already closed, per a source.
“When he returned, a new officer brought a new credit card machine that worked,” the insider adds.
The actor plans to proceed with auctioning the watch at his charity event, the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative.
Schwarzenegger “initially took the interrogation fairly calmly, but then the time and the procedure got on his nerves” according to sources.
“The Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative will properly report it, as all of Arnold’s non-profits do,” an insider says., highlighting Schwarzenegger’s history of raising millions for good causes.
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