BUCHAREST, Romania — Andrew Tate, the self-proclaimed “king of toxic masculinity,” never hid why he had chosen Romania as his home and business base.
“I like to live in a society where my money, my influence and my power mean that I am not below or beholden” to any law, Tate told his followers.
But, like much of what the former kickboxer has said on social media to his millions of mostly young male followers — including claims that he is a billionaire and has 19 passports — Tate's proclamation of faith in Romania as a safe haven for antisocial behavior reflected more fantasy than reality.
Romanian authorities arrested Tate, a citizen of the United States and Britain, and his younger brother, Tristan, in December on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized criminal group. Held for three months in a prison in Bucharest, the capital, both men, who deny any wrongdoing, are now under house arrest awaiting trial.
His home, a sprawling complex in Voluntari, a town next to Bucharest, looks more like an industrial warehouse than the lair of a man who boasted immense wealth and posted videos dating beautiful women. The top cars that once crowded the yard, including a Rolls-Royce, a Porsche and an Aston Martin, have been confiscated by authorities.
According to a 2022 US State Department report, Romania remains “a major sex trafficking country” in Europe. But he has made an effort to address the bribery and general lawlessness that has long been his bane—and that attracted Tate. Before his arrest, he said he liked “living in countries where corruption is accessible to everyone,” where anyone can pay a $50 bribe to avoid a speeding ticket.
The State Department report said that while Romania “did not fully meet minimum standards for the elimination of sex trafficking,” it was “making significant efforts to do so,” citing legal changes, a marked increase in trafficking prosecutions, increased cooperation with other European countries and the establishment in 2021 of a unit dedicated to combating sex trafficking by Romania's Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation Directorate, the agency leading the Tate investigation.
Eugen Vidineac, the Romanian lawyer defending Tate, attributed the Romanian authorities' unexpected zeal against his client to American intervention, which he said had begun last year after The mother of a young woman from Florida began to worry that Tate was holding her daughter captive and asked the US State Department to do something. The request, he said, led US authorities to request help from Romania and sparked a criminal investigation in April last year. Investigators bugged the complex, tapped Tate's phone and monitored his movements and online communications.
The details of what they found are still secret and, said Vidineac, who has access to the case file, they do not provide evidence of criminal wrongdoing, only of debauchery. “What matters is what is illegal, not what is immoral.”
Prosecutors accuse Tate of luring women to his compound and then putting them to work under duress as pornographic webcam performers.
Vidineac said Tate had never forced anyone to stay or work there. She acknowledged that women had appeared in videos, but said she had done so of their own free will in hopes of gaining followers on social media.
“Romania is not as corrupt as Tate had thought and hoped,” said Mihaela Dragus, a police officer at Romania's National Anti-Human Trafficking Agency.
ANDREW HIGGINS. THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6740847, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-01 14:00:09
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