Why did police raid Andrew Tate’s Romanian home?

Romanian police raided misogynist internet personality and professional bald creep Andrew Tate’s home on Wednesday Aug. 20, 2024, in the latest legal development facing the controversial influencer. About a year earlier, the British-American former kickboxer was indicted in Romania on various charges, including rape and human trafficking.

Through social media, Tate built a dubious reputation and a sizable following in the so-called ultra-macho “manosphere” defending toxic masculinity while promoting gender violence and even selling online courses on how to force women into sex work. Having made millions, Tate left the U.K. amid a sexual assault investigation around 2017 and settled in Romania, where he said he could find a legal system more sympathetic to his worldview. Tate’s U.K. charges were dropped.

“In Western legal systems,” Tate said, according to The Guardian, “whether England, America, or any of them, if a girl says something she needs zero proof … and they will come and arrest you. It’s insanity and I thought, I can’t live under this system anymore, so I had to move somewhere with common-sense rules.”

Even still, Romanian law caught up with Tate in 2022. The next year, Tate, his brother Tristan, also a former kickboxer, and two female suspects were indicted and put on house arrest awaiting trial on charges including sex with a minor, and sexually exploiting women, Reuters reported. Tate, his brother, and the two females denied the accusations.

After an appeal, Tate, 37, and the other suspects were prevented from leaving Romania awaiting trial. For a short time, that ruling was overturned, allowing Tate freedom of movement in the EU. That travel ban was reinstated about a month before Romanian police raided Tate’s home.

Romanian authorities were gathering evidence

Although Andrew Tate and the three other suspects involved in the case were already indicted, Romanian authorities, including DIICOT, the country’s anti-organized crime agency, raided Tate’s property near Bucharest seeking evidence related to new allegations involving minors. Having been under house arrest, Tate was seen leaving his home accompanied by officers. Mateea Petrescu, a Tate spokesperson said, “[A]lthough the charges in the search warrant are not yet fully clarified, they include suspicions of human trafficking and money laundering.”

In a statement, DIICOT added, “[The raid concerned] a criminal case regarding the commission of the crimes of setting up an organized criminal group, trafficking of minors, human trafficking, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements, and money laundering.” During the raid, Tate said, “Anything to put me in jail except to give me a trial. No trial, no judge, this country is crazy.” The influencer previously said on X his indictments were about “stealing his wealth.”

In March 2024, Tate and his brother were back in the Bucharest Court of Appeal about an unrelated U.K. case involving sexual violence. Tate and his brother will be extradited to the U.K. on those charges when his Romanian trial has concluded, per an agreement between the two countries. When the raid happened, a date for Tate’s trial to begin had not yet been set.