Controversial online influencer Andrew Tate has reportedly been detained in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation.
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Andrew Tate, who was jailed alongside his brother Tristan, had his home in Bucharest raided.
According to Reuters, a lawyer for the boys confirmed their imprisonment. The former kickboxer rose to prominence in 2016 after being booted from the British TV show Big Brother due to a video that purported to show him assaulting a woman. He went on to become well-known online, with Twitter banning him for claiming that women should “carry responsibility” for sexual assault. He was later reinstated.
A criminal file has been opened on the names of the British brothers. According to Romanian news channel Antena 3 CNN, a former policewoman was also searched and questioned for her alleged involvement in the case.
Andrew and Tristan Tate are being investigated for human trafficking and rape and will reportedly be taken to DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism) for questioning. DIICOT confirmed the raid in a statement but did not name the suspects. The brothers’ lawyer confirmed to Reuters they had been detained.
“The four suspects … appear to have created an organised crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialised websites for a cost,” prosecutors said, according to the Reuters news agency.
The brothers, along with two Romanian nationals, have been under investigation since April.
Mr Tate and his brother appear to be led away from a beautiful villa in a video extensively distributed on social media. The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) of Romania published a statement in which it stated that two British citizens and two Romanian citizens were accused of being part of a criminal cell focused on human trafficking.
It also published video footage of the raid, which showed guns, knives, and money on display in one area.
Five years ago, Mr Tate relocated to Romania. Mr Tate, a British citizen born in the United States, formerly competed professionally as a kickboxer and won world titles.
He entered the Big Brother house in 2016, but was quickly evicted after a video surfaced showing him beating a woman with a belt. At the time of his dismissal from the programme, Mr Tate stated the footage had been manipulated, calling it “a pure falsehood attempting to make me seem terrible”.
He went on to become well-known online, with Twitter banning him for claiming that women should “carry responsibility” for sexual assault. Mr Tate has been removed from other social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, with TikTok also banning him, claiming “misogyny is a vile ideology that is not permitted”.
His articles on other online sites advocate bigotry and attack women and have millions of views, with the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring noting earlier this year his work had “raised worries about the real-world effect it could have”.
Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, he, along with former US President Donald Trump, was recently let back on.
Andrew Tate, a 19-year-old climate activist, tagged Greta Thunberg in a tweet earlier this week, bragging about his 33 automobiles. “Please supply your email address so that I may send a detailed list of my automobile collection and their respective massive emissions,” he wrote, to which Thunberg responded, “Yes, please do enlighten me. Please contact me at [email protected].”
With nearly 3 million likes, the message rapidly became one of the most-liked tweets of all time.
Tate responded to Thunberg on Wednesday with a video in which he consumes pizza from a box labelled “Jerry’s Pizza,” a Romanian restaurant brand.
The Tate brothers started a webcam business in which they sold “fake sob stories” to male callers. Andrew claims to have made millions of dollars from the operation, which he later admitted was a “total scam.”