A Romanian court has ordered that internet personality Andrew Tate be placed under house arrest, his representative said on Thursday, after being among six individuals detained in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were among the six people detained on Wednesday within the first 24 hours after Romania’s organized crime unit DIICOT conducted four house raids in Ilfov County and the municipality of Bucharest.
DIICOT requested that the Bucharest court detain the Tate brothers for 30 days, but the judge decided to place Andrew Tate under house arrest while keeping Tristan under judicial supervision for that period, said their representative Mateea Petrescu.
“The Tate brothers welcome the decision and firmly deny all charges against them, stating that the accusations are unfounded and not supported by substantial evidence,” Petrescu wrote in a statement.
Tate was also charged in mid-2023 alongside his brother and two Romanian women. At that time, they were suspected of human trafficking, rape, and forming a criminal gang for the sexual exploitation of women, which they denied.
Before their latest detention, the brothers were subject to a travel ban, allowing them to move freely within Romania but not leave the country.
A self-proclaimed misogynist, social media influencer Tate gained millions of followers by promoting an ultra-masculine lifestyle that critics say degrades women.
In a post on Tate’s social media account on X, it stated: “All they are trying to do is damage my name with complete nonsense,” without specifying who was being referred to.
DIICOT announced in a statement that six individuals were detained for criminal activities, including forming an organized crime group, human trafficking, trafficking minors, sexual relations with a minor, and money laundering.
The statement added that DIICOT sought the continued detention of three of the detainees, with another suspect placed under house arrest.
According to DIICOT, two of the accused used the “loverboy” method, which involves convincing victims that they are in a romantic relationship, to coerce 34 victims into producing pornography that was then sold online for revenue exceeding 2.8 million dollars and 887.000 tokens.
DIICOT claims that one of the accused forced a 17-year-old minor to produce pornography in the United Kingdom (UK) and Romania, earning 1.5 million dollars. It is also alleged that the same accused repeatedly had sexual relations with a 15-year-old victim, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
