Tate placed under house arrest as new sex trafficking allegations investigated

Influencer will be unable to leave home for 30 days as Romania’s organised crime agency looks into 37-year-old and brother

Andrew Tate has been placed under house arrest by a Romanian court as prosecutors investigate new allegations of sex trafficking of minors.
The influencer, 37, will not be allowed to leave home for 30 days as the country’s organised crime agency looks into allegations of human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors.
Investigators are also looking into claims of sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl, forming an organised criminal group and money laundering.
The alleged crimes date from between 2014 and 2024.
Mr Tate, who rose to fame as a YouTube star who describes himself as “the king of toxic masculinity”, was among six people – including his brother Tristan – detained on Wednesday by masked police.
A spokesman for the brothers said they firmly deny all of the allegations against them and “remain steadfast in proving their innocence”.
DIICOT, the Romanian crime agency, said that the defendants used the coercive “loverboy” method to exploit 34 vulnerable victims, who were forced to produce pornographic materials for a fee online.
They said more than $2.8 million (£2.14 million) generated was kept by the defendants.
During the police raids on Wednesday, which also involved scouring the Tate brothers’ large property near Bucharest, authorities seized 16 luxury vehicles, a motorbike, laptops, thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches, and data storage drives.
Outside the court, Mr Tate told reporters that many of the alleged victims in the new case have made statements in his defence, and pointed to the judge’s decision not to remand him and his brother in custody, as prosecutors had requested.
“This is a set-up, it’s absolutely disgusting,” he said. “Fair play to that judge who saw through the bulls— and let us free.”
Mr Tate has 9.9 million followers on X and is known for expressing misogynistic views online. He has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.
The brothers are already facing separate criminal allegations in Romania, and a request by British authorities to extradite them to the UK to face charges of sexual aggression dating back to 2012.
The extradition request was granted but the two men will remain in Romania until after legal proceedings against them there.