What to Know About the Accusations Against Andrew Tate

 

What to Know About the Accusations Against Andrew Tate

 

The online influencer, who has denied all allegations against him, is facing rape and human trafficking charges in Britain and an investigation in Romania.

 

Isabella Kwai

By Isabella Kwai

Reporting from London

https://www.nytimes.com/article/andrew-tate-arrests-explained.html

May 30, 2025

 

Andrew Tate, an online influencer known for his displays of wealth and misogynistic views, and his brother Tristan are facing criminal charges in Britain of rape, human trafficking and assault, and an investigation in Romania over human trafficking and money laundering.

 

The brothers have denied all the accusations against them, and successfully blocked an indictment in Romania from heading to trial. The Romanian authorities are still carrying out a separate criminal investigation into the brothers, and after that is concluded, the Tates will return to Britain to face the charges there, a lawyer for the brothers said Thursday.

 

After decamping to the United States in February for a visit to Florida, they have returned to Romania several times for required check-ins with the authorities. They have since been spotted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 

Mr. Tate, 38, is a British and American former kickboxer who has gained a large online following by marketing a brand of antagonistic masculinity tied to lavish displays of wealth.

 

Online and in interviews, Mr. Tate has expressed sexist views, saying that women hold some responsibility if they are raped and that they “belong” to men in marriage, while men should be providers and protect them.

 

Mr. Tate sells access to an online “academy” and a “War Room,” an online community where his fans discuss get-rich-quick schemes and other subjects. Educators in Britain have warned that his messaging is reaching young boys who are wrestling with their own ideas of masculinity.

 

Concerns over his influence led several social media sites to bar Mr. Tate in 2022, but he has maintained an active presence on X and Rumble, where he shares pictures of his luxury cars and rails against “the Matrix” — his conspiratorial term for a network of corporate elites, mainstream politicians and feminists who he claims are victimizing men.

 

In an indictment filed in June 2023, prosecutors in Romania accused Mr. Tate and his brother, along with two Romanian women, of forming an organized criminal group in 2021 and trafficking women across Romania, Britain and the United States. The brothers have so far successfully blocked that case from going to trial.

 

Some details of those charges have been kept confidential, but an official in the prosecutor’s office confirmed in June 2023 that they included a rape charge against Andrew Tate.

 

According to court documents, investigators identified seven women who said that the brothers had misled them into believing they wanted a relationship with them. The women were instead housed in a compound near Bucharest and forced to appear in pornographic videos that were shared online.

 

The brothers have denied the accusations and said that their wealth had made them targets. “I’m sure at the end we’ll be absolutely exonerated,” Mr. Tate told reporters after a court ordered their release from house arrest last August.

 

They had been ordered to stay in Romania as a judge inspected the indictment. A preliminary chamber in Bucharest approved the case for trial, but in December, an appeals court ruled that the indictment did not meet the requirements for the case to move to trial and sent it back to prosecutors.

 

In August 2024, Romanian authorities searched one of the Tate residences as part of a new investigation, a spokeswoman for the brothers said. Those accusations included human trafficking and money laundering. Romanian prosecutors confirmed that they had issued search warrants in the Bucharest area over the potential trafficking of minors, and sexual intercourse with a minor.

 

What is he accused of in Britain?

The Crown Prosecution Service announced on Wednesday that it had authorized charges of rape, human trafficking and assault against the brothers.

 

Andrew Tate faces 10 charges, including rape, assault causing actual bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain. Tristan Tate faces 11 charges, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.

 

The charges were authorized in January 2024, prompting the release of European Arrest Warrants for the Tate brothers, but were not publicly confirmed by the service until Wednesday.

 

Four British women also sued Andrew Tate in 2024, claiming that he had raped and abused them.

 

The brothers “unequivocally deny all allegations and decry what they perceive as an exploitative use of the legal system,” their spokesman said.

 

What happens next?

After being held in Romania for more two years, prosecutors allowed the brothers to leave the country in February while the criminal investigation against them continued. The Tates would still need to “appear before judicial authorities wherever summoned,” prosecutors said.

 

Before flying back to Romania in March, Mr. Tate posted on X: “Innocent men don’t run. THEY CLEAR THEIR NAME IN COURT.”

 

The Romanian authorities had seized some of the brothers’ assets, including luxury goods and cryptocurrencies, though much of them have since been returned.

 

With British prosecutors authorizing new criminal charges against the brothers, more scrutiny will now fall on the Romanian investigation. The brothers are expected to be extradited to Britain to face charges after the Romanian cases conclude, and a law firm representing them has said that they will return to Britain.

 

In the United States, the Tates have sued several people for defamation, including two women who had given evidence to Romanian authorities. One of those woman in February filed her own lawsuit against the brothers, accusing them of luring her to Romania and conspiring to coerce her into sex work. The brothers, her complaint said, also conspired to use their influence to intimidate her into recanting her testimony to the Romanian authorities.

 

The brothers have aligned themselves with President Trump, but while in Florida they received a chilly reception from two of the state’s top officials, both Republicans. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the brothers were not welcome there, and the state’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, opened a criminal investigation into them.

 

Matei Barbulescu, Ali Watkins and Lizzie Dearden contributed reporting.