The US state of Florida has launched a criminal investigation into brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who flew there last week from Romania, where they are accused of rape and human trafficking.
This is reported by the BBC.
Florida Attorney General James Utmeier said investigators had issued search warrants and subpoenas for the brothers as part of an "active" investigation.
After returning to the United States, Andrew and Tristan Tate faced a civil lawsuit from a woman who claims the men forced her to work as a sex worker and then falsely accused her of giving evidence to Romanian authorities. The brothers deny all charges.
The Tate brothersʼ attorney Joseph McBride issued a statement about the investigation, calling the attorney generalʼs comments "inflammatory" and "biased".
The Tates were first arrested in Romania in December 2022. Andrew was charged with rape and human trafficking, while Tristan was suspected of human trafficking. They had moved to Romania from the UK a few years earlier. Both have denied the charges.
In August 2024, Andrew and Tristan Tate faced new charges, including sex with a minor and trafficking in minors, which they also deny.
The men are due to return to Bucharest at the end of March to fulfill the prosecutorʼs conditions. Whether they will do so is unknown.
Meanwhile, Bedfordshire police in England are still seeking the extradition of Andrew Tate on separate charges of rape and human trafficking, as well as tax evasion. In the UK, four women have filed a civil lawsuit against Andrew Tate in the High Court, claiming he raped them.
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 video 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. Andrew 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.
In February 2025, the Financial Times, citing sources, wrote that the administration of the US President Donald Trump was pressuring the Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on Andrew Tate. And at the end of the month, the Tate brothers flew from Romania to the United States.
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".
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