It’s about allegations of human trafficking, rape and the formation of a criminal organization: In Romania, the Tate brothers are facing a process – the influencers and two accomplices face 13 years in prison.
British-American influencer Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two suspected Romanian accomplices are on trial in Bucharest over allegations of sexual exploitation of women. According to the Romanian public prosecutor’s office (DIICOT), the special unit responsible for organized crime, has completed the investigation and sent the indictment to the court. A hearing date has not yet been announced.
The prosecutors had recently expanded the allegations against the four suspects: The initially known criminal offenses of human trafficking and rape are said to have been committed not just once, but “in a continuous manner”, said DIICOT. The accused face up to 13 years in prison for founding an organized crime group.
Victims are said to have been threatened and blackmailed
The four suspects were arrested on December 30, 2022 in the Bucharest suburb of Voluntari. At the end of April, the pre-trial detention was changed to house arrest. Prosecutors allege that the Tate brothers and their accomplices coerced young women to appear in commercially distributed sex videos. They are said to have used the so-called loverboy method: they used manipulation techniques to make the girls dependent on themselves.
According to prosecutors, the brothers and their accomplices founded a criminal organization in 2021 with the aim of human trafficking in Romania and other countries such as the United States and Great Britain. The charges also include “illegally accessing a computer system, altering the integrity of computer data, inciting physical harm or other violence, and causing physical harm or other violence.”
Property, guns and cars confiscated
One of the Tate brothers’ two alleged Romanian accomplices was a former police officer. So far, seven victims have been identified. The Tate brothers deny the allegations. During the arrest, investigators discovered weapons and large sums of cash in the Tate brothers’ villa. Ten properties and 15 luxury cars owned by the Tates in Romania were later confiscated.
Beaten woman with belt
Andrew Tate rose to fame in 2016 when he was kicked out of Britain’s Big Brother show after a video of him hitting a woman with a belt broke. As an influencer, he had always staged himself with misogynistic statements. In Britain and beyond, he is considered the epitome of so-called toxic masculinity.
