Influencer Andrew Tate has left Romania for U.S.: airport sources

by Ani SANDU

Influencer Andrew Tate, facing charges of human trafficking and rape in Romania, left for the United States on Thursday, airport sources told AFP.

Romanian prosecutors allege that former kickboxer Tate, 38, his brother Tristan, 36, and two women set up a criminal organization in Romania and Britain in early 2021 and sexually exploited several victims.

The brothers, who have a British and American nationality, insist they are innocent.

The Romanian organized crime squad DIICOT said the two brothers, who left for the US together, remained "under judicial supervision" and had to "appear before the judicial authorities at every summons".

"Violation in bad faith of the obligations incumbent on them may lead to the replacement of judicial control with a higher custodial measure," DIICOT said.

Romanian aviation news media BoardingPass said "a Gulfstream G550 private jet took off from Bucharest, Romania, bound for Fort Lauderdale" just after 6:00 am (0400 GMT).

"The flight... will be operated non-stop and will last 12 hours," it added.

Four British women who have accused Andrew Tate of rape voiced concern last week that the US government might push Romania to ease their travel restrictions.

The Financial Times has said U.S. President Donald Trump's administration brought up Tate's case with Romanian authorities earlier this month, calling for Bucharest to return the brothers' passports.

- 'Gaslighting' -

Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said Trump's envoy Richard Grenell raised the case with him at the Munich Security Conference earlier in February.

The four women, who are bringing a civil case against Tate at the High Court in the UK accusing him of rape and coercive control between 2013 and 2016, urged Washington not to get involved.

"These are women who are the victims of the most horrible and horrific alleged crimes," the victims' UK lawyer Matthew Jury told BBC Newsnight.

"And to see the most powerful man in the world support their alleged abuser is incredibly traumatizing. It's retraumatizing for them. It's gaslighting of a sort," he added.

Andrew Tate moved to Romania years ago after first starting a webcam business in the UK.

He leapt to fame in 2016 when he first appeared on the UK's "Big Brother" reality television show, but was removed after a video emerged showing him attacking a woman.

He then turned to social media platforms to promote his often misogynistic and divisive views on how to be successful.

Banned from Instagram and TikTok for his views, Tate is followed by more than 10 million people on X watching his homophobic and racist posts.

A Romanian court has granted a British request to extradite the Tates to Britain, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.

Last year, the Tates were sentenced in a tax fraud case in Britain.

© Agence France-Presse