Social media influencer Andrew Tate has been formally charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania. His brother Tristan and two Romanian women were also charged.
The defendants are charged with “organizing a criminal group, human trafficking and rape”. All four defendants denied the allegations.
The former professional kickboxer is accused of luring vulnerable women to his compound in Romania and forcing them to perform sex acts on camera.
Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said Andrew repeatedly raped one of the alleged victims. The BBC said a trial would likely take years.
Romanian officials also confiscated some of the Tate brothers’ assets, including 15 luxury cars, 14 pricey watches, $560,000 in cash and $3 million in cryptocurrency coins.
The social media star and his brother Tristan were detained by police in December 2022 on sex crimes in Romania. They were released from a Bucharest jail on April 1 and moved to house arrest pending formal charges.
Andrew resumed his trolling behavior on Twitter following his release from jail. He was banned from Twitter in 2017 for hate speech, misogyny against women and violence.
However, he was reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk purchased the app for $44 billion in October 2022.
Andrew is also banned by Facebook and Instagram and he can’t post videos on YouTube.
