A Moldovan woman thought it was love. Internet celebrity Andrew Tate he offered her a new life. They even discussed marriage. He demanded only one thing: absolute loyalty.
"You have to understand that once you become mine, you will be mine forever," Tate told her on February 4 last year in one of dozens of WhatsApp messages published by Romanian prosecutors claiming that he trafficked and sexually exploited several women. Tate, an influencer with millions of followers on the Internet, invited the Moldovan to join him in Romania. "Nothing bad will happen," he assured her on February 9. “But you have to be on my side”.
The following month, according to Romanian prosecutors, Tate raped the woman twice while trying to enlist her in a human trafficking operation focused on creating pornographic material for the online platform OnlyFans, which allows people to sell their explicit footage.
The statements and messages are part of a previously unpublished court document, dated December 30, seen by Reuters. The agency says the document provides a detailed account of the illegal business allegedly run by Tate, a former world kickboxing champion, and his brother Tristan.
The files were released after the brothers were arrested on December 29, accused of forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women.
Andrew Tate, 36, who holds British and American passports and has lived mainly in Romania since 2017, and his 34-year-old brother have denied all allegations against them. They are in police custody and Reuters was unable to reach them for comment.
In response to questions, their lawyer Eugene Vidinek he said that he cannot publicly confirm or deny information about the case while the investigation is ongoing. Romania's organized crime unit also said they could not comment on the investigation.
Reuters has translated the messages Tate exchanged with the Moldovan woman and points out that although the correspondence was originally conducted in English, it was documented in Romanian in court records and may not be identical to the original.
The brothers used deception and intimidation to control the six women and "turn them into slaves," prosecutors said. The 61-page document, compiled by court officials in Bucharest, includes transcripts of the hearing when the judge extended the Tates' detention, as well as evidence presented by the prosecution.
Lawyer Vidinek said that the alleged victims of the brothers were not abused, but that they lived "on the crest of the Tate family's fame", according to the court document. "They were happy and no one was forcing them to do those things," he added.
The document also states that Vidinek admitted that Andrew Tate and the Moldovan woman had sexual relations, but he said that it was with mutual consent and accused her of making false accusations of rape.
Two women told the Romanian television station Antena3 on January 11 that they were not victims and that the Tates were innocent. That television called them by name only, Beatrice i Jasmina.
"You can't make me a victim if I say I'm not," Beatrice told the television station. The other four women, including the Moldovan, did not make statements in public.
More searched for on Google than Putin
The charges facing Tate have put the spotlight on a man who admits to being a misogynist and who has built an online fan base, particularly among young men, by promoting a flamboyant, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful women.
During 2022, he was the 8th most searched person on Google, surpassing celebrities like Johnny Depp, Smith's Villa and even Vladimir Putin, Google's analysis showed.
Prosecutors said the Taits controlled victims' accounts on the OnlyFans network and earned tens of thousands of euros, raising concerns among human rights groups about the potential for exploitation of women on such platforms.
UK-based platform OnlyFans has 150 million users who pay "creators" monthly fees of varying amounts for their content, mostly erotic or pornographic, but also in areas such as fitness training and music.
The company, whose 1,5 million creators can earn from several hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month, claims on its website that it is "the most secure digital media platform." It was founded in 2016 and grew rapidly during the quarantine during the covid pandemic.
A spokeswoman Sue Beebe she told Reuters that Andrew Tate "never had" a creator account or received payments. He said OnlyFans had been monitoring his activities since early 2022 and had taken "proactive steps" to prevent him from publishing or monetizing content. However, she did not provide details on the reasons why such steps were taken.
She added that creators generally undergo extensive identity checks and that all content on the platform is reviewed, and that the company works closely with the police.
A course on how to subdue a woman
Andrew Tate's image is the result of a series of controversial comments. He compared women to dogs and said that they bear part of the responsibility when they are raped. Because of his comments, he was banned from Facebook, Instagram and other leading social networks last year.
A Meta spokesperson said that Tate was banned from Facebook and Instagram in August 2022 for violating their rules, which prohibit "gender-based hate speech, any type of threat of sexual violence, or the threat of sharing intimate photos without consent."
Tate said in a podcast in 2021 that he founded an online recording business in Britain and that at its peak he had 75 women working for him, earning $600 a month - a sum that Reuters could not independently confirm. In the podcast, he did not specify what these women actually do.
Until last month, his site offered a course for over $400 that promised to teach "every step to shaping a girl who is compliant, loyal and in love with you."
"THAT'S MY SKILL. To make women fall in love with me extremely efficiently", he stated on the website. Pages about that course were removed in January.
In a separate YouTube video aimed at men looking to make money by introducing women to OnlyFans, Tate called the platform "the biggest scam in the world."
In court documents, attorney Vidinek stated that Tate's online persona was a "fictitious persona" created to gain as many followers as possible and make money and that "it has nothing to do with him in reality."
On Tate's Twitter account, which was relaunched in November, a month after he became a billionaire Elon Musk bought the platform, promoting his innocence to 4,8 million followers. "They arrested me to "look" for evidence... which they won't find because it doesn't exist," the January 15 post said.
A scared American woman
Tate first met the Moldovan online on Instagram in January 2022, before they met in person in London the following month, and by March she was in Romania, prosecutors said in the court document, which includes correspondence from the platform. WhatsApp between February 4 and April 8.
Authorities took action against the brothers on April 11, when police raided one of their properties in Bucharest on suspicion that they were holding an American woman there against her will.
According to prosecutors, the American woman - one of six alleged victims - met Tristan Tate online in November 2021 and then in person in Miami the following month. They say he lured her to Romania with false promises of a serious relationship, that he paid for her plane ticket and said he could help her earn "a hundred thousand a month" on the OnlyFans platform.
Tristan Tate met her at Bucharest airport in a Rolls Royce on April 5, 2022, and took her to his home, where there were two armed guards, the document states.
He told her that she was not a prisoner, but said that the guards would not allow her to go out without his permission, it was added. He said that it was dangerous for her to go out "because he has enemies".
Cameras were installed throughout the house, which Tristan Tate was monitoring, prosecutors said. He once texted an American woman and told her he could see where she was and what she was doing, they said.
When she moved to another house with Andrew Tate's four other "girlfriends," she was allowed to go out, but only accompanied by other women, prosecutors said, adding that she was "very afraid" of the brothers.
In the document, Tate's lawyer said that the American woman had a mobile phone, internet access and the freedom to leave the house whenever she wanted. That girl has not spoken publicly about the Tates or prosecutors' allegations.
The mistaken belief that you are in a relationship with someone is a common feature of a type of human trafficking, which Romanian prosecutors allege was used by Tate. In a press release on the day of the influencer's arrest, they said that he used the so-called "lover" strategy to manipulate women and obtain pornographic content for his business.
Tate's bodyguard Bogdan stancu, who worked on the brothers' estate for two years, told the BBC in January that the women around Tate thought she was going to marry him. "Some of the girls did not understand reality and believed that they would become his wives," Stanca told the BBC.
Romanian prosecutors said on Jan. 15 that as part of their investigation into the suspects, they seized nearly $XNUMX million worth of property, including luxury cars, from Andrew Tate's estate in the suburbs of Bucharest.
Threats of beatings
The detention of the Tate brothers, along with two Romanian women accused of working for them, has been extended until February 27. On Wednesday, the court rejected their appeal against detention. A judge can order them to remain in custody for up to 180 days while the investigation is ongoing, meaning they could remain behind bars until the end of June.
Suspected accomplices Georgina Nagel i Luana Radu, controlled the six victims' accounts on the OnlyFans and TikTok platforms, taking half of the revenue and fining the women when they were late or in a bad mood on camera, prosecutors said.
They threatened the women with beatings if they did not do their jobs, according to court documents.
Nagelova and Radu have rejected all the accusations against them. Vidinek, who also represents Nagel and Radu's lawyer, told Reuters that they could not comment on the case.
The Tates, according to prosecutors, put women on TikTok to drive traffic to OnlyFans for lucrative subscriptions.
TokTok said in a statement that Andrew Tate has been banned from its platform, and that it has taken action against videos and accounts linked to him, which violate rules prohibiting the publication of "sexually exploitative content".
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