On the way to Florida

Andrew Tate and brother allowed to leave Romania

Andrew Tate (right) and his brother Tristan are said to be on their way to Florida.

(Bild: Vadim Ghirda)

The British-American influencer Andrew Tate, who is being prosecuted in Romania on suspicion of rape and sexual exploitation, and his co-accused brother Tristan have been allowed to leave the country. According to several Romanian media outlets, the brothers flew out of Bucharest airport early this morning on a private plane bound for Florida in the USA.

When asked, the border police merely stated that two US citizens had left the country and referred to the notification from the public prosecutor's office. There was no official confirmation of the Tates' departure. The special unit of the public prosecutor's office responsible for organized crime, DIICOT, stated that "two defendants, persons with US and British dual citizenship" were allowed to leave the country legally. The previous ban on leaving the country had been lifted. DIICOT did not give the names of those affected. Nevertheless, these individuals are still subject to criminal prosecution in Romania and are obliged to comply with any summons issued by the judicial authorities.

Pressure from the Trump administration on Romania?
Days earlier, the media had reported that there had been pressure on Romania from the new US administration of President Donald Trump to allow the Tate brothers to leave the country. Richard Grenell, Trump's special envoy for special missions, had asked Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu about this during a chance meeting at the Munich Security Conference. Hurezeanu had explained that Grenell had told him in Munich that the USA was interested in the Tate case. However, the minister went on to say that he had not perceived this as pressure.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu had said that the Tates would be wanted under an international arrest warrant if they did not appear at their next police check-up in Bucharest in March of this year. This was reported by the Romanian news agency Mediafax, citing unnamed government sources.

Prosecution declared irregular by appeals court
The public prosecutor's office had accused the Tates of forcing young women to participate in commercially distributed sex videos. They used manipulation techniques such as the so-called loverboy method to make the victims dependent on them. In an initial indictment from June 2023, the brothers and the alleged accomplices were accused of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal organization.

In December last year, the Court of Appeal in Bucharest declared these charges to be irregular. Statements made by two victims were invalid and could not be accepted as evidence, the court explained, among other things. The Tates and the alleged accomplices were first arrested near Bucharest on December 30, 2022. This measure was later changed to house arrest, after which they were released on condition that they did not leave the country.

More than two dozen victims identified
The public prosecutor's office recently identified a total of 34 women as victims of the crimes, including a 15-year-old girl. By exploiting the women, the brothers are said to have made a criminal profit of at least 2.8 million dollars (2.5 million euros). The two brothers deny all allegations.

Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer, had reached millions of teenagers and young men with misogynistic statements on social networks. His brother Tristan assisted him.