Andrew Tate, Brother Tristan allows to leave Romania in rape, trafficking charges
Internet figures Andrew and Tristan Tate were accused of trafficking in Romania in two investigations and were allowed to leave the country.
Romania’s Anti-Organized Crime Agency Dicott said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation to prevent the defendant from leaving Romania”, but judicial control measures remained. The agency did not say who made the request.
“These include the demands that appear before the judicial authorities whenever summoned,” the statement said. “The defendant was warned that intentional breach of these obligations could lead to the replacement of judicial control by stricter liberal measures.”
The Financial Times reported last week that members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have imposed restrictions on Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on The Tates, a former kickboxing player with U.S. and British citizenship.
Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu denied that he was under pressure, but said the trends were mentioned in a brief corridor meeting with Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.
Before the criminal investigation, Thais were under judicial control, a preventive measure that required them to conduct regular inspections with police. They were first detained in 2022.
It is unclear whether Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration, who intends to visit Trump at the White House on Thursday, has any prior knowledge of the changes in his identity.
First arrested in 2022
Social media influencer Andrew Tate is a self-proclaimed misogynist who has gained millions of fans by promoting the supermale lifestyle that critics say demean women.
Tate, 38, and his brother Tristan, were arrested near the Romanian capital along with two Romanian women and were accused of forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Several women said they were detained on false pretexts, surveillance and forced to appear in pornographic videos.
Last year, Romanian prosecutors formally prosecuted all four, and Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. In April 2024, the Bucharest Court ruled that the trial might begin but no date was set.
Romanian prosecutors have prosecuted influential people and former taekwondo players, including human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. Andrew Chang explores Tate’s reputation and case against him.
All four defendants denied the allegations.
In December, a court in Bucharest ruled that the case against Tates and two Romanian women could not be tried due to the prosecutor’s multiple laws and procedures irregularities.
The decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeals was a huge setback for Diicot, but that doesn’t mean the defendants can walk freely. The case has not been closed and there is another legal case against the Romanian brothers, including money laundering charges.
In the second half of last year, a British court ruled that in another case against the Tate Brothers, police could catch more than £2.6 million ($4.7 million in CDN) to pay for the couple’s unpaid taxes for years and freeze some of their accounts. Andrew Tate called it “total theft” and called it “a coordinated attack on anyone who dared to challenge the system.”
Andrew Tate said he moved to Romania after being investigated in the UK for allegations of sexual assault and was eventually dropped.
