Influencer Andrew Tate’s Romania home raided as new allegations emerge involving minors
- Tate and his brother, Tristan, are accused of human trafficking and exploiting young women and are awaiting the start of their trial while out on bail
Masked police officers in Romania carried out fresh raids early on Wednesday at the home of divisive internet influencer Andrew Tate, who is awaiting trial on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, DIICOT, said it was searching four homes in the counties of Bucharest and nearby Ilfov, investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. The agency added that hearings will later be held at its headquarters.
Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said in response to the raids 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. Petrescu did not address the allegations involving minors.
Dozens of police officers and forensic personnel were scouring Tate’s large property on the edge of the capital Bucharest. “During the entire criminal process, the investigated persons benefit from the procedural rights and guarantees provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the presumption of innocence,” DIICOT noted in its statement.
The 37-year-old Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, 36, both former kick-boxers and dual British-US citizens who have both amassed millions of social media followers, were arrested in 2022 near Bucharest along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year. They have denied the allegations.
In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that the prosecutors’ case file against the four met the legal criteria and that a trial could start, but did not set a date for it to begin. That ruling came after the legal case had been discussed for months in the preliminary chamber stages, a process in which the defendants can challenge prosecutors’ evidence and case file.
