Andrew Tate: Romania is searching 7 homes in connection with the sex trafficking case

Bucharest, Romania — Romania’s anti-organized crime agency has carried out seven additional home searches as part of its investigation into social media influencer Andrew Tate, an official said Thursday.

Ramona Paula, a spokeswoman for the DIICOT agency, said searches are underway in Bucharest, Lvov and Prahova provinces “in order to obtain more evidence”.

Tate, 36, a British-American citizen with 4.5 million followers on Twitter, was arrested on December 29 in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, on charges of belonging to an organized criminal group, human trafficking, and rape. His brother Tristan and two Romanian women were also arrested.

On Tuesday, a court upheld the judge’s December 30 move to extend their detention from 24 hours to 30 days.

Thursday’s searches come a day after Tate lost a second appeal this week in a Bucharest court, challenging plaintiffs’ seizure of assets in the late December raids, including property, land and a fleet of luxury cars. More than 10 properties and lands owned by companies registered with the Tate brothers have also been confiscated so far.

Bola said the court “determined that the confiscation was lawful and that the goods remain at our disposal.” She said if they can prove that the Tates made money through human trafficking, the assets could be used to cover investigation expenses and compensate victims.

DIICOT says it has identified six victims in a human trafficking case who were subjected to “acts of physical violence and mental coercion” and sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group.

The agency said the victims were lured through claims of love, and later intimidated, kept under surveillance, and subjected to other methods of control while being forced to perform pornographic acts intended to make money for their alleged persecutors.

“We make it clear that throughout the entire criminal process, investigated persons benefit from procedural rights … as well as the presumption of innocence,” DIICOT added in its statement Thursday.

Tate, a former professional boxer who has lived in Romania since 2017, has previously been banned from several prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynist views and hate speech.

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McGrath contributed from Sighisoara, Romania.