Romanian prosecutors indict Andrew Tate for trafficking minors, money laundering

BUCHAREST, Sept 4 - Romanian prosecutors officially indicted social media influencer Andrew Tate on Friday for trafficking minors, money laundering, sex with a minor and witness tampering and his brother Tristan for complicity, years after they began investigating them.The Tate brothers, former kickboxers with dual U.S. and British citizenship, were arrested in Miami in late July after Britain requested their extradition.Mainly based in Romania since 2017, they have been under criminal investigation in the country on charges including human trafficking since December 2022. They have denied all wrongdoing.Romanian prosecutors said the Tates recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage, before forcing them to produce pornographic content for a webcam business."We will examine every aspect of (the indictment) with the same level of scrutiny and we will challenge any evidential, procedural or legal deficiencies through the appropriate judicial process," a Romanian lawyer for the Tates, Eugen Vidineac, said in a statement."Our clients continue to reject the allegations against them."The Tate brothers remain in jail in the U.S. while a judge decides on the request for their extradition to Britain, where they are wanted on rape charges.The spokesperson for the Romanian anti-organized crime prosecuting unit DIICOT — which is investigating the Tates — said it was not immediately clear whether the unit will seek their extradition from the United States.The Tates can be tried in absentia in Romania, but the trial will not start immediately. Under Romanian law, the indictment gets sent to a preliminary court chamber, where a judge will inspect the case files to ensure legality.While the law states that the preliminary chamber judge has 60 days to finalize the report, indictments routinely take significantly longer.Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist, previously said he moved to Romania because law enforcement was more lax there.Both brothers have grown their following of mainly young men by building a lavish, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful women. REUTERS