Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been placed under house arrest in Romania for 30 days amid an investigation into claims of ‘sex with a girl aged 15 and trafficking of a 17-year-old girl’ to Britain who was then forced to ‘perform sexual acts in order to produce pornographic material’.
The new investigation involves a total of 35 alleged victims, including a woman who was just 15 at the time. The alleged victims were all said to have been in an ‘obvious state of vulnerability’.
The Tate brothers appeared in court on Thursday afternoon and prosecutors have now asked for them to be remanded in custody for 30 days while the investigation continues.
Andrew Tate, the divisive internet personality, made a furious statement to the press outside the court house, slamming the case as a ‘stitch-up’.
He said: ‘This is a set-up. It is absolutely disgusting. Thirty of those girls say we have done nothing wrong. Two are the mothers of our children.’
A spokesman for Andrew Tate confirmed that the pair had been placed under house arrest today and that the brothers ‘salute the decision’ but ‘firmly deny all allegations leveled against them’.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are escorted outside the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), in Bucharest, Romania
Andrew Tate speaks to media outside Bucharest Tribunal after being placed under house arrest in Bucharest, Romania
It comes after the Tate brothers were among six people taken into custody in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Romania’s agency against organised crime, DIICOT, said in a statement that six people had been detained in total, including both Romanians and foreigners.
Police allege one of the defendants, who they said was a foreign citizen but did not name, had ‘sexual relations’ with a 15-year-old from December 2020.
The same defendant is also accused of forcing a 17-year-old to perform sexual acts, before pornographic material was sent out on various websites.
The man is alleged to have kept all the $1.5 million (£1.1m) profit from the videos.
The alleged victim is said to have been ‘misled’ and housed in several locations across both Romania and the UK.
According to DIICOT, two of the accused used the ‘loverboy’ method, which involves convincing victims that they are in a romantic relationship, to force 34 victims into making pornography which they then sold online for proceeds of over $2.8 million and 887,000 tokens.
Two of the defendants are accused of buying luxury cars ‘in the names of close people’ to conceal that they were profiting from human trafficking, prosecutors allege.
It is not clear which of the charges apply to which of the six suspects.
Tate tweeted that the case against him is a mainstream ‘conspiracy’ to silence him.
A post on Tate’s account on social media platform X this morning read: ‘All they try to do is damage my name with complete bullshit’, without specifying who was being referred to.
The brothers were detained last night, and this afternoon two men appeared in court in Bucharest
Tate posted on X this morning after being detained by Romanian police last night
In raids on Tate’s property yesterday, DIICOT carried out ‘insurance seizures’ of 16 luxury cars and a motorbike
Romanian police said that a motorbike had been seized from Tate’s property near Bucharest
DIICOT said it carried out ‘insurance seizures’ of 16 luxury cars and a motorbike
A spokesman for Andrew Tate said: ‘Andrew Tate has been placed under house arrest and his brother, Tristan, under judiciary control in a decision issued by the judge at the Tribunal of Bucharest, today August 22nd, at 19.30.
‘DIICOT had placed a request for 30 days preventative arrest for both brothers, but the judge has denied the request given the brothers’ exemplary behaviour while previously under preventative measures.
‘The Tates salute the decision and firmly deny all allegations leveled against them, emphasising that the accusations are baseless and unsupported by substantial evidence.
‘They will continue to comply with the due course of justice and remain steadfast in proving their innocence.’
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