Andrew Tate was indicted in Romania on Friday on charges of trafficking minors, sex with a minor, money laundering, and witness tampering, and his brother Tristan was indicted for complicity, meaning prosecutors say he helped carry out the conduct.
The charges come from DIICOT, which is Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, the national agency that handles trafficking and organized crime cases. An indictment is a formal accusation that sends a case toward trial. It is not a conviction, and both brothers deny everything.
DIICOT’s account centers on two girls. Prosecutors say the first was 15 when Andrew Tate seduced her in Britain in 2012, and that he then moved her to Bucharest, where they allege he used physical violence and mental intimidation to force her to produce pornographic content for social media platforms. Tristan is accused of acting as an accessory and using physical aggression against the same victim.
The second allegation covers a period between December 2020 and the middle of 2021. Prosecutors allege that during those months Andrew Tate “repeatedly had sexual intercourse and sexual acts with another minor victim,” a girl who was also 15.
The money charges attach to the first victim. DIICOT says the brothers kept $1.25 million from the webcam income she generated, which prosecutors put at roughly 80 percent of everything she earned. Between December 2023 and July 2024, the agency alleges, they moved that money through the purchase of four luxury cars worth about 825,000 euros, or roughly $957,000. That is what money laundering means in practice: taking money that came from a crime and running it through purchases or accounts so it looks like it came from somewhere legitimate. Prosecutors have asked the court to confiscate the vehicles.
DIICOT describes the recruitment method the same way across its filings. The agency says the brothers pursued victims by pretending to want a relationship or a marriage, built trust on that basis, and then pushed them into producing pornographic material for an online webcam operation.
The Tates were arrested near Bucharest in late 2022 and formally indicted in 2023. In late 2024, the Bucharest court of appeals sent that case back to prosecutors, ruling that some of the evidence was inadmissible and citing legal and procedural problems on the prosecution’s side. The case never reached trial. What was filed Friday is the second attempt, built by the same agency that had its first one handed back to it.
The brothers are not in Romania right now. Both were arrested in Miami in late July after Britain requested their extradition, which is the legal process of one country handing a person over to another to face charges there. They remain in custody in the United States. That leaves three countries with an active claim on them, and no clear public answer yet on which case moves first.
DIICOT did not name the Tates in its announcement. The agency described an investigation into two British men from the same family, aged 39 and 38. Romanian press, including the national news agency Agerpres, identified them. Andrew Tate is 39, and Tristan is 38.
Eugen Vidineac, a Romanian lawyer for the brothers, said in a statement that the defense will examine every part of the indictment closely and challenge any evidential, procedural, or legal deficiencies through the courts. Given how the last case ended, that is not an empty threat. Another lawyer for the brothers in Romania did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
Andrew Tate has consistently denied all of it and has said the cases against him amount to a political effort to silence him.
Both brothers are former kickboxers with dual American and British citizenship who built enormous online followings, particularly among young men. Andrew Tate was the eighth most Googled person in the world in 2022. He has been based in Romania since 2017, describes himself as a misogynist, and has said publicly that he chose the country partly because he considered law enforcement there more relaxed. He moved there after a UK sexual assault investigation that was eventually dropped.
Romanian law entitles everyone under investigation to the presumption of innocence, and DIICOT has said so itself in past statements about this case. Nothing has been proven in court. What has changed this week is that prosecutors believe they now have a filing that can survive the scrutiny the last one did not.
