Raidul poliției române la locuința influencerului Andrew Tate
Police in Romania have conducted fresh raids at the home of online influencer Andrew Tate, as part of an investigation into a range of alleged offenses, including human trafficking and money laundering.
Tate, 37, who has millions of followers on social media, his brother Tristan, 36, and two Romanian women, were indicted on human trafficking charges last year and are awaiting a trial date.
The Tate brothers, who are both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. nationals, have denied the charges.
On Wednesday morning, dozens of masked police officers and forensic teams scoured Andrew Tate’s main home in the suburbs of the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said it was searching four properties in Bucharest, and nearby Ilfov.
The agency said it was investigating allegations of human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements, and money laundering.
DIICOT said further hearings would take place at its headquarters in Bucharest later on Wednesday.
In a statement, the agency said, “Throughout the entire criminal process, the persons under investigation benefit from the rights and procedural guarantees provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the presumption of innocence.”
Andrew Tate, who has almost 10 million followers on the social media platform X, said in a post on Wednesday: “The Matrix is real. And they have a tried and true playbook.”
“Slander is their number one tool and the process is the punishment. But unfortunately for them, Good always wins in the end,” he added.
After the Tate brothers were arrested in 2022, they were detained for three months before being released under house arrest, with conditions.
In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled the prosecutors’ case filed against the Tate brothers and their co-accused met the legal criteria for a trial, but no date has been confirmed.
Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that would have allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania pending their trial as long as they remained within the European Union.
In March, the Tate brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case, after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations dating back to 2012–2015.
The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the Tates but said it would have to wait until the completion of legal proceedings in Romania.
Andrew Tate has always insisted the Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him and said there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
Last month a judge in Florida ruled the Tate brothers can proceed with a defamation lawsuit against an unidentified Florida woman who accused them of imprisoning her in Romania.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Joseph Curley ruled the attorneys for the Tate brothers had shown enough evidence to proceed on allegations the Florida woman enlisted another person in a 2022 plot to extort money from them.
Andrew Tate was banned from Twitter in 2017 for allegedly misogynistic comments. In 2022, after Elon Musk bought Twitter, now known as X, he restored Tate’s account as well as several others, including that of former President Donald Trump.
His spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said, “Although the charges in the search warrant are not yet fully clarified, they include suspicions of human trafficking and money laundering,” and he said the influencer’s legal team was present during the raids.
Petrescu did not comment on the allegations involving minors.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
