Masked Romanian police officers carried out fresh raids on the homes of Andrew Tate and 3 others, over new allegations of sexual exploitation and money laundering. This comes 2 days after the popular social media personality criticized Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, and amid over 2 years of prosecutions of him and his brother Tristan in the corrupt small European country.
The special prosecution service of the Romanian Organised Crime Directorate, DIICOT said in a statement it searched four homes Wednesday morning, in Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county, investigating allegations of human trafficking and money laundering. Four others were also arrested including the Tate brothers' associates Luana Radu and Georgina Naghel.
As Tate and his brother were ushered from their home into a police van outside, he told reporters that the case was progressing too slowly. “What have I done wrong, who knows?” he said.
The brothers were driven to the DIICOT headquarters in police vans. They're escorted by armed police officers but neither of them was in handcuffs.
They're met at DIICOT building by a small crowd of reporters and supporters. As he entered, Tate greeted a local reporter who asked why he was back at the place.
Grinning, Tate replied that he "didn’t know," before saying jokingly that he was in his "favourite place."
Two police officers, who both had their faces covered by balaclavas, were seen carrying heavy sacks into the same building -- presumably with items taken during a search of the brothers’ home and other properties.
Asked to comment on the latest developments, their lawyer, Eugen Vidineac said the latest allegations were not yet clear, as he hadn’t yet seen the file, and didn’t yet know “what we’re dealing with.”
Following a hearing later in the day at DIICOT headquarters, the brothers are being detained for 24 hours.
According to the brothers' lawyer, they are being kept until prosecutors can ask a judge either to detain them for longer, move to house arrest or release them. Officers at DIICOT have 24 hours to question the brothers. After that, if they want to detain them longer, they would have to bring them before a judge.
The lawyer said he did not expect the brothers to be detained longer because their movements are already restricted as they await trial for other charges.
Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said in response to Wednesday's raid that “although the charges in the search warrant are not yet fully clarified, they include suspicions of human trafficking and money laundering” and added that his legal team is present.
Commenting on the new allegations as they're escorted to jail, Tate shouted over his shoulder that the prosecutors were "desperate."
"Wait 'til you see," Tate said. "They say I have lover-boyed the mother of my children. We tricked them into having kids... Ask them this time what the evidence [is]." He described the file as being "more pathetic than the first."
Andrew 37, and his brother Tristan, 36, both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. citizens, were arrested in 2022 near Bucharest along with two Romanian women Radu and Naghel. They are accused of exploiting women via an adult content business, which prosecutors allege operated as a criminal group. All four were formally indicted last year, but still awaiting a formal court trial to resume in that case. They have vehemently denied the allegations.
Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial. The earlier court ruled on July 5 that they could leave the country as long as they remained within the 27-member European Union. The decision was final.
In March, the Tate brothers also appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case, after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015. The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the the Tates to the U.K., but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
Wednesday's raid comes 2 days after the Tate brothers participated in an X Spaces conversation with other speakers including social media personalities and entrepreneurs Candace Owens and Dan Bilzerian. They discussed the corrupting Israeli influence operations in America and around the world, and the war in Gaza, which Andrew Tate called a genocide against Palestinians.
Tate said that Israel and its operatives control the "matrix" a favorite term of the popular social media personality which refers to a global cabal that controls world affairs and punishes populist right-wing dissidents opposed to globalization and authoritarian centralization of power.
The raid Wednesday, drew swift criticisms on social medial with many alleging that it was an attempt to use corrupt Romanian courts to intimidate, deplatform and jail the Tate brothers, given their popularity and enormous influence on young men.
