After months of inquiry, the online celebrity and his brother Tristan Tate have been formally charged.
Authorities in Romania announced Tuesday that Andrew Tate had been indicted on counts of rape, human trafficking, and organizing a gang to rape women.
Along with his brother Tristan Tate and two female Romanian nationals, the discredited influencer and former professional kickboxer, who has dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom, was prosecuted.
The brothers were detained or placed under house arrest after their arrest in December.
The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), a Romanian anti-terrorism organization, claimed in a statement on Tuesday that Tate and his co-defendants formed a criminal organization in 2021 “in order to commit the crime of human trafficking on the territory of Romania, but also in other countries, such as the United States of America and Great Britain.”
According to the press release, the criminal organization deceived seven victims with “the intention to establish a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of real feelings of love.”
Instead, according to DIICOT, the victims were taken to buildings in the vicinity of Bucharest, in the county of Ilfov, where they were coerced into engaging in pornographic activities through physical and psychological abuse that were then shared on social media.
Many of Tate’s assets, including 15 high-end automobiles, 14 high-end watches, and about $300 million in bitcoin, were also sought to be seized, the statement said.
Attorneys for Tate and his brother refute each and every charge.
“While this news is undoubtedly predictable, we embrace the opportunity it presents to demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation,” Tate’s legal team stated in a statement provided to PEOPLE.
The statement said, “Our main objective will be to ascertain the truth and ensure a fair and impartial evaluation of the material the legal team will offer.
After three months of pretrial custody, British-American former professional kickboxer Andrew Tate (L) and his brother Tristan Tate (C) leave Bucharest police’s central arrest facility on the evening of March 31, 2023. – On March 31, 2023, a Romanian court issued an order transferring controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother from incarceration to house arrest while they are under investigation for alleged involvement in rape and human trafficking.
The indictment now enables us to present a thorough body of evidence that has been painstakingly gathered and prepared over time, which will definitely substantiate the brothers’ assertions of innocence.
The request for additional comment from PEOPLE was not immediately answered by DIICOT.
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The Romanian daily newspaper Gândul claims that the Tate brothers have been the subject of an investigation since April 2022.
A complaint was received, according to the publication, alleging that “a woman with American citizenship was being forcibly held at their residence.” This sparked the investigation.
According to the newspaper, several young women were discovered in a structure that was roughly 500 yards from the Bucharest villa. The American woman claimed to have met Tristan on social media and that he had persuaded her to book a flight to Romania. Later, the woman got in touch with her ex-boyfriend, who informed the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest about her claims.
As a contestant on the reality TV series Big Brother (UK), Andrew Tate became well-known. His misogynistic beliefs, which have caused him to be banned from social media networks, have earned him a reputation as a contentious personality. According to NBC News, he has made controversial claims such as that women are primarily to blame for rape and that men should own them.
