We summarize the Andrew Tate case, a male-rights influencer prosecuted for sexual violence and human trafficking in Romania and the United Kingdom

It’s a legal saga that looks like a mille-feuille. The case of Andrew Tate, one of the world’s most famous influencers, criticized for his sexist, violent and conspiratorial speeches, is once again making headlines in the European press after he was placed in police custody and then under house arrest in Romania on Thursday, August 22. Banned from several social networks, including TikTok and Instagram, the 37-year-old former British kickboxer, who has become a financial coach, is in the sights of the justice system in the United Kingdom as well as in Romania, where he has lived since 2017. Franceinfo looks back at the various investigations and suspicions of serious acts weighing on this “misogynist” And “pimp” assumed.

Reports of sexual violence in the UK since 2015

It was by participating in the reality TV show “Big Brother” in 2016 in the United Kingdom (which is based on the same concept as “Loft Story” and “Secret Story” in France), that Andrew Tate, then aged 29, acquired a certain media notoriety. Already an international kick-boxing champion, he made headlines by being ousted from the program by the production after only six days, after the revelation by the tabloid The Sun of a video showing him hitting a young woman with a belt. Andrew Tate had then argued that it was a “filmed role play”. No complaints had been filed.

A year earlier, in 2015, the man had had a run-in with the law after accusations of rape and violence from several women, also in the United Kingdom. In July 2015, Andrew Tate was arrested by the police for questioning, before being released. In 2019, the British justice system dropped the charges due to lack of sufficient evidence, as reported by GuardianThe case nevertheless caused a shockwave, particularly after the revelation in early 2023, by the media VICE News, of messages sent by Andrew Tate to one of the complainants, in which he uttered the phrase “I love to rape you”.

Upcoming trial for rape and human trafficking in Romania

On social media, Andrew Tate became a figure of uninhibited masculinism in the late 2010s, showing himself with sports cars and naked women in his videos. An enticing showcase for one of his many businesses: selling online training courses promising men the chance to achieve fortune and multiply their female conquests. According to a BBC documentary released in September 2023, a “kind of sect” was created around the influencer, notably involving his brother Tristan, now 36 years old, who moved with him to Romania in 2017.

It was in this country that the serious troubles began for the sulphurous duo. At the end of 2022, the two brothers were arrested and spent three months in detention in Bucharest, before being placed under judicial supervision in January 2023 with a ban on leaving the country. The case against them is particularly serious: they are accused of having manipulated young women in order to force them to act in pornographic films. Andrew Tate is also accused of two rapes, which he formally denies. On the social network X, where his account was restored just after the platform was bought by Elon Musk at the end of 2022, the influencer regularly shouts to his nearly 10 million subscribers that he is the victim of a conspiracy “policy”.

Last June, the Romanian justice system formally requested a trial against the Tate brothers and two Romanian women, accusing them of having set up an organized criminal network exploiting women in that country, in the United Kingdom and in the United States, as reported by New York TimesAt least seven young women have complained that they were lured into a relationship, then housed in a residence and forced to appear in pornographic videos posted online.

This already hot issue could get even thicker after a search carried out on Wednesday at the home of the Tate brothers by the Romanian Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (Diicot), during which the equivalent of 60,000 euros in various currencies, computer equipment and 16 luxury cars were seized. In a press release, the Diicot reveals that the Romanian justice system now estimates the number of victims of this sex trafficking at 34, including a minor aged 17. The numerous videos filmed with this young girl are said to have brought in more than a million euros to the defendants, the police detail. Without naming him, the Diicot also accuses one of the “foreign defendants” of having had sexual relations on several occasions with a minor aged 15 in the winter of 2020.

At the same time, a new procedure opened by the British justice system

Pending this trial, the charges and number of defendants – as victims – could be brought to evolve, the British justice system has issued two European arrest warrants against Andrew and Tristan Tate. After being dismissed in 2019, three British plaintiffs finally brought the case before the High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom, explained the Guardian in May, for a civil procedure of “the last chance”according to their lawyers. As reported by the BBC, these requests led to the arrest of the two brothers on March 12 by the Romanian police, in order to notify them of the existence of the warrants.

In the process, a Bucharest court accepted the request for the Tate brothers’ extradition to the United Kingdom, but only after the trial against them in Romania has ended. Investigations are continuing in that country after the search, on Wednesday, of three other places in the Bucharest region, explains the Diicot, in connection with suspicions “of trafficking in minors, human trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor, bribery of a witness and money laundering”.

After 24 hours in police custody as part of this new investigation, Andrew Tate was placed under house arrest for 30 days on Thursday evening. The Bucharest prosecutor’s office also placed his brother Tristan under judicial supervision for two months, with an obligation to report regularly to a police station. Immediately after their release, the two men broadcast a live video on the “slanderous lies” which they claim to be victims of. While promoting a new cryptocurrency that they are about to launch. Their spokesperson for his part declared that the Tate brothers “insane”[ai]”firmly reject all allegations made against them, stressing that the accusations are baseless and not supported by substantial evidence.”.