Brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate left Romania on the morning of February 27. They allegedly flew on a private jet from Baneasa Airport to the United States. They were arrested in Romania in 2022 and charged with rape, trafficking of minors and money laundering. Both deny these charges.
This is reported by the BBC, citing sources.
Andrew and Tristan were banned from leaving Romania, but this restriction has now presumably been lifted.
In February of this year, the Financial Times, citing sources, wrote that the administration of the US President Donald Trump was pressuring the Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions.
At the same time, it became known that Washington had allegedly filed requests for the return of Andrew and Tristan Tateʼs passports and permission for their travel while they await the completion of their trial.
The Tate brothers have a million-strong following in the “manosphere”, a term used to describe online communities that discuss issues related to men, their rights, problems, and roles in society. They can range from self-improvement communities that support traditional notions of masculinity to more extremist ones that may espouse anti-feminist views or criticize contemporary social norms.
The "manosphere" is believed to have played a role in Trumpʼs re-election. In November 2024, Tristan Tate boasted on X about his and his brotherʼs role in the US election, saying that "millions of young men in Europe and the US have a healthy right-wing approach to politics that they would NOT have if Andrew Tate had never appeared on their phone screens".
What preceded
Andrew Tate was born in the US, where he had a successful career as a kickboxer, before moving to the UK. In 2016, he was kicked out of the British TV show Big Brother after being caught on camera assaulting a woman. He then opened a “webcam business” that he described as “adult entertainment”. He rose to fame after tweeting that women should “take responsibility” for sexual assault. He is generally known on social media for his “ultra-masculine” and “ultra-luxurious” lifestyle. Tate regularly appeared in videos showing his fleet of expensive sports cars, private jets and vacations at expensive resorts.
On December 27, 2022, Andrew Tate posted a photo on Twitter of himself refueling a Bugatti and bragging to environmental activist Greta Thunberg that he had 33 cars. Tate then released a video in which he tried to justify his attack on Thunberg. The attention of law enforcement officers in this video was drawn to two pizza boxes that bore the name of the Romanian fast food chain Jerryʼs Pizza.
Tate was first arrested in Bucharest in December 2022. He and his brother were held in custody until March, when they were placed under house arrest. The arrest was lifted in August 2023, but the brothers were banned from leaving one of the districts of Bucharest. Both are accused not only of rape and human trafficking, but also of deceiving seven women into sexual exploitation in exchange for promises of relationships or marriage.
In August 2024, a Bucharest court sent Andrew Tate under house arrest for 30 days while prosecutors investigate a new case of trafficking in minors and sex with minors.
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