Andrew Tate, former kickboxer, online personality and representative of the online “alpha-male manosphere,” has been under fire from the United Kingdom (UK) and Romanian governments respectively for a slew of criminal charges.
Tate, 38-years-old, rose to popularity with his kickboxing career and shot into the limelight in the 2020s with inflammatory online statements regarding women. Tate and his younger brother Tristan are now facing charges of child sex trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor and various money laundering charges.
In 2022, the Romanian US embassy was alerted to an accusation Tate was holding a woman in his Romanian home against her will, sparking a human trafficking case against the two Tate brothers. The Romanian government found evidence the Tate brothers held women in their multi-million dollar home, forcing them to perform on online webcam services. At the end of 2022, the Tate brothers along with two other women were arrested, and charged with forming an organized crime group. The Tate brothers subsequently had more than $4 million USD of assets seized.
In June 2023, the Tate brothers were indicted on charges of rape, human trafficking and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women. The charge of human trafficking was raised to “human trafficking in continued form,” a more serious charge, with seven victims identified, one of which is a minor. The brothers did and still do deny any wrongdoing.
The Tate brothers filed multiple defamation lawsuits against the victims, but the cases were quickly thrown out by the US court of law. In March 2024, the UK issued a separate arrest warrant for the two brothers, also citing tax evasion, and several months later in August 2024, the two were placed under house arrest by the Romanian government.
In December 2024, the UK government seized over $3 million USD of assets after the brothers failed to pay tens of millions in taxes. As of mid-January, the brothers have been released from house arrest and are under judicial control.
As of January 15, UK lawmaker Sorcha Eastwood is suing the Tate brothers for their continued attacks on social media. Self-described “misogynists,” the Tate brothers, specifically Andrew Tate, take to X, formerly Twitter, to write inflammatory and aggressive social media posts.
Andrew Tate described the UK government’s December decision as “not justice” and a “coordinated attack.”
