Andrew Tate placed under house arrest after new human trafficking charges emerge

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in the Romanian capital on Thursday placed controversial internet influencer Andrew Tate under house arrest for 30 days while prosecutors investigate a sprawling new case involving allegations of human trafficking and sex with minors.

The Bucharest tribunal’s decision comes a day after prosecutors arrested six people, including 37-year-old Tate and his brother Tristan Tate, 36, after masked police searched four houses in Bucharest and the nearby Ilfov county. Prosecutors had asked the court to remand the brothers in custody for 30 days. Tristan was placed under judicial supervision, which normally entails geographical restrictions and regular reporting to the police.

The brothers' spokeswoman, Mateea Petrescu, reacted to the decision by saying that the judge had rejected the prosecutor's request because the brothers had “behaved in an exemplary manner” while in preventive detention in another case. They also firmly denied all the charges against them and “remain steadfast in their attempt to prove their innocence.”

The Tate brothers, both former kickboxers and British and American citizens, are already awaiting trial in Romania in another human trafficking case, along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors officially charged all four last year.

In the new case, Romania's anti-organized crime agency DIICOT said it was investigating allegations of human trafficking, including trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with minors, forming an organized criminal group, money laundering and manipulating statements. The alleged crimes date from 2014 to 2024.

According to DIICOT, the defendants used the coercive “Loverboy” method to exploit 34 vulnerable victims who were forced to produce pornographic material online for payment. More than $2.8 million (€2.5 million) of the profits generated were retained by the defendants.

An unnamed foreigner also sexually exploited a 17-year-old foreign girl, DIICOT claims, and said he kept the entire $1.5 million (1.3 million euros) he earned from the criminal activity. The same man had “multiple sexual relations and acts” with a 15-year-old, the agency claims.

Outside court after the judge ordered his house arrest, Andrew Tate told reporters that many of the alleged victims in the new case had made statements in defense of the Tate brothers. “This is a trap, it's absolutely disgusting. Kudos to the judge for seeing through the nonsense and letting us go,” he said.

Andrew Tate, who has 9.9 million followers on social media platform X, is known for expressing misogynistic views online. He has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He has previously been banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.

“Throughout the criminal proceedings, the persons under investigation benefit from the procedural rights and guarantees of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the presumption of innocence,” DIICOT said.

In Wednesday's raids, which also included searches of the Tate brothers' large estate near Bucharest, authorities seized 16 luxury cars, a motorcycle, laptops, thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches and data storage drives.

The latest case against the Tates is another in the litany of legal problems they face.

Following their arrest in December 2022, the Tate brothers were held in police custody for three months before being placed under house arrest. They were later confined to the city of Bucharest and nearby Ilfov County, and then to Romania.

In April, the Bucharest court ruled in this case that the indictment against her met the legal criteria and that a process could begin However, no start date has been set.

Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision allowing the Tate brothers to leave Romania while awaiting trial. The previous court ruled on July 5 that they could leave the country as long as they remained within the 27 member states of the European Union. The decision was final.

In March, the Tate brothers also appeared before the Bucharest Court of Appeal in another case after British authorities issued arrest warrants on allegations of sexual assault in a British case dating from 2012 to 2015. The Court of Appeal granted the British request to extradite the Tates to the United Kingdom, but only after the trial in Romania had been completed.

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McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania.