Romanian prosecutors say they have changed a human trafficking charge against the social media influencer Andrew Tate to a more serious one.
Tate, his brother Tristan and two other suspects were now being investigated for human trafficking in continued form, according to prosecutors, who said it was a more serious crime than separate counts of trafficking.
The Tate brothers and two Romanian women, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are under house arrest pending a criminal investigation for suspected human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, accusations they have denied.
Under Romanian legislation, prosecutors have filed charges against the four suspects, but the case is under investigation and has not yet gone to trial. Prosecutors are expected to commit them for trial later in June.
Tate, 36, a British-US citizen who has 6.8 million Twitter followers, and the three other suspects were held in police custody from 29 December 2022 until 31 March this year, when a Bucharest court placed them under house arrest.
The prosecution unit of Romania’s directorate for investigating organised crime and terrorism (DIICOT) notified the Tate brothers on Tuesday that the human trafficking charge had changed to trafficking in continued form, a DIICOT spokesperson said. Under Romanian law, trafficking of adults carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
One more victim had been added to the case, which started out with six women, the spokesperson said.
The Tate brothers’ legal team said the changes were in the suspects’ legal interest. “The legal framework has been revised and altered to ensure an impartial investigation is upheld,” they said.
DIICOT also said it had opened a separate criminal investigation against a Romanian man close to the Tate brothers on allegations of human trafficking and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit seven women.
Prosecutors said Vlad Obuzic, whose social media platforms show pictures of him with the Tate brothers, and two other suspects had recruited their alleged victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage.
The victims had then allegedly been coerced to produce pornographic content for social media sites, with the suspects keeping most of the gains.
“To ensure the victims’ loyalty and that they will perform only to the benefit of the members of the group, they were forced to tattoo the name or face of the group member exploiting them,” the prosecutors said.
In an interview with the BBC earlier this month, Tate denied the allegations of rape and exploitation made against him. He also denied that his views on women were harmful, later claiming that it was “completely disingenuous” to “pretend” that he was damaging young people.
He said: “I genuinely am a force for good in the world. You may not understand that yet, but you will eventually. And I genuinely believe I am acting under the instruction of God to do good things, and I want to make the world a better place.”
The former kickboxer and reality TV star was banned from the Meta platforms Instagram and Facebook for violating company policies “on dangerous organisations and individuals” in 2022.
