Romanian prosecutors indict Andrew Tate on trafficking minors and money laundering

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian prosecutors on Friday indicted social media influencer Andrew Tate on charges of trafficking minors, sex with a minor, and money laundering.

Tate, 39, and his brother Tristan Tate, 38, were first arrested in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, in late 2022. Tristan is indicted with complicity in the case, according to DIICOT, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency.

The agency said on Friday that the Tate brothers coerced a victim by pretending to be in a loving relationship and then forcing her to produce pornographic material for an online webcam business.

A lawyer for the Tate brothers in Romania did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new indictment stems from an investigation that led to the brothers’ arrest in 2022 and their being formally indicted in 2023. A court returned that case to DIICOT in 2024 because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors. The case wasn’t closed, and there was also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania in 2024.

The Tates, who are dual U.S.-British citizens, are among the world’s most polarizing internet personalities by promoting wealth, male dominance and misogyny through their social media empire.

DIICOT alleges that in 2012 the brothers recruited a 15-year-old girl in Luton, a town in England where the brothers are from, and that they obtained more than $1.2 million from her webcam activity after she was repeatedly transported to Romania.

The crime agency alleges that Tristan Tate knew the victim’s age, that she had been recruited by Andrew, and that between 2014 and 2021 he knowingly deceived her about his brother’s “feelings and intentions,” which helped to facilitate her sexual exploitation. It is further alleged that between December 2020 and mid-2021, Andrew Tate “repeatedly had sexual intercourse and sexual acts with another minor victim,” who was also aged 15.

Between December 2023 and July 2024, DIICOT alleges the Tates tried to “hide or disguise the illicit origin of the money” obtained from human trafficking by purchasing four luxury cars worth about 825,000 euros ($957,000), and said they had requested the vehicles confiscated.

Both the Tate brothers have repeatedly denied the allegations against them. Andrew Tate has also claimed that there is a political conspiracy to silence them.

The Tates were arrested in Bucharest in late 2022 on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape.

DIICOT alleges in the new indictment that their victims had been paid or intimidated in attempts to influence them “not to give statements or to give false statements.”

The Tates are currently being held in Miami after prosecutors in the United Kingdom requested their extradition in July on sex crimes allegations. The Tates took the witness stand in federal court last week and said they can’t adequately defend themselves from criminal sex charges if they have to remain in a Miami jail while fighting extradition to the U.K.

Their lawyers repeated arguments from court filings that the U.K.’s extradition request was out of line because their criminal case in Romania is going first.

Romanian officials allowed the Tates to remain free with some restrictions — including reporting to a Bucharest police station — while the proceedings are ongoing.

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.