Arnold Schwarzenegger was held for hours at the airport in Munich, Germany, on Wednesday, and authorities say he will face criminal tax proceedings over a luxury watch he allegedly failed to declare. "He did not declare a product. A product that was imported from non-EU countries in order to remain in the EU," Munich Customs press officer Thomas Meister tells CNN. "And this process applies to everyone." Meister says Schwarzenegger should have paid tax on the watch because he intended to sell it, the Washington Post reports. Bild reports that Schwarzenegger plans to auction the custom-made watch from Swiss luxury brand Audemars Piguet at a Thursday fundraising dinner in Austria for his climate initiative.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Daniel Ketchell tells the Post he was on the same flight from Los Angeles to Germany. Schwarzenegger "was detained for three hours. He owns the watch," Ketchell says. "None of the people I know and sat next to on our commercial flight filled out a declaration form, including Arnold—he got to customs, and they told him he was 'randomly' selected to be searched." He says that during the search, Schwarzenegger answered "every single question the customs officer asked, so to say he didn't declare anything is 100% false."
Sources say Schwarzenegger agreed to pre-pay potential taxes on the watch, but it turned out to be a lengthy process. Because a credit card machine in the customs office wasn't working, customs officers took Schwarzenegger to an ATM, but its cash limit was too low, sources say. "He cooperated at every step even though it was an incompetent shakedown, a total comedy of errors that would make a very funny cop movie," a source tells CNN. (More Arnold Schwarzenegger stories.)
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