By Elizabeth Wagmeister, Chris Stern and Jorge Engels | CNN
Arnold Schwarzenegger will face criminal tax proceedings after failing to declare an item upon arrival to Germany, a Munich Customs press officer told CNN Wednesday.
“He did not declare a product. A product that was imported from non-EU countries in order to remain in the EU. And this process applies to everyone,” the press officer Thomas Meister said.
Meister said the former California governor and movie star was released and traveled on after being held for more than two hours.
“Arnold was detained for three hours today at Munich airport for traveling with a watch he owns, that he might be auctioning at his charity auction tomorrow in Kitzbuhel (in Austria),” a source close to the actor told CNN.
The source said the item in question was a watch from Swiss luxury brand Audemars Piguet.
Schwarzenegger was never asked to fill out a declaration form and he answered “every question from customs officers honestly,” the source said.
“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,” the source added.
The actor agreed to pre-pay potential taxes on the watch and the officers failed to use a credit card machine for an hour until they gave up and brought him to a bank and asked him to withdraw cash from an ATM to pay, according to the source.
The ATM they brought him to had a limit too low and the bank was closed.
When he returned, a new officer brought a new credit card machine that worked, the source added.
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