Internet celebrity, Andrew Tate lured women into sex trafficking using deception and intimidation, by discussing marriage and love, prosecutors allege.
In court documents recently unsealed Tate
offered a woman from Moldova a new life. They'd even discussed marriage.
He asked for only one thing: absolute loyalty.
"You must understand that once you are mine, you will be mine forever," Tate told her on Feb. 4 last year in one of dozens of WhatsApp messages cited by Romanian prosecutors who allege he trafficked and sexually exploited several women.
Tate, an influencer with millions of online followers, urged the Moldovan woman to join him in Romania.
"Nothing bad will happen," he reassured her on Feb. 9. "But you have to be on my side."
The
following month, Romanian prosecutors claim Tate raped the woman twice
in the country while allegedlyseeking to enlist her in a
human-trafficking operation focused on making pornography for the online
platform OnlyFans, a site that allows people to sell explicit videos of
themselves.
According to Reuters, the allegations and messages are included in a previously unpublished court document, dated December 30 which paints the most detailed picture yet of the illicit business allegedly run by Tate, a former kickboxing world champion, and his brother Tristan.
The allegations came to light following the arrest of the brothers on December 29 on charges of forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
British-American Andrew Tate, 36, who's been based
mainly in Romania since 2017, and his 34-year-old brother have denied
all the allegations against them.
The brothers used deception
and intimidation to bring six women under their control and "transform
them into slaves", prosecutors said in the document.
The
61-page file, produced by Bucharest court officials, comprises minutes
of a hearing when a judge extended the Tates' detention plus evidence
submitted by the prosecution.
Tate's Attorney Vidineac said the brothers' alleged victims weren't mistreated, but "lived off the backs of the famous Tates", according to the court document. "They were joyful and nobody was forcing them to do these things," he added.
Vidineac acknowledged in the document that Andrew Tate and the Moldovan woman had sex but he said it was consensual and accused her of fabricating the rape claims.
Two
of the women told Romanian TV station Antena3 on January 11 that
they're not victims and the Tates are innocent. The station identified
them only by first names, Beatrice and Iasmina.
"You cannot list me as a victim if I say I am not one," Beatrice told the station. The four other women, including the Moldovan woman, haven't publicly commented.
Tate is a popular self-described
misogynist who has built an online fanbase among young men, by promoting
a lavish, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful
women.
In 2022, he was the world's eighth-most Googled person,
outranked only by figures such as Johnny Depp, Will Smith and Vladimir
Putin, according to Google's analysis.
Prosecutors say the Tates controlled the victims' OnlyFans' accounts and earnings amounting to tens of thousands of euros, underlining concerns among some human rights groups about the potential for the exploitation of women on such platforms.
Andrew Tate had compared women to dogs and said
they bear some responsibility for being raped. His remarks got him
banned from Facebook, Instagram and other leading social media platforms
last year.
Tate said on a podcast in 2021 that he had started a webcam business in Britain that had peaked with 75 women working for him earning $600,000 a month. He didn't elaborate in the podcast on what the women did.
Up until last month, his website offered a course costing
more than $400 that promised to teach "every step to building a girl
who is submissive, loyal and in love with you".
"THAT IS MY SKILL. To extremely efficiently get women in love with me," he said on the website.
