A Romanian court ruled that self-proclaimed “misogynist” influencer Andrew Tate must complete his full 30-day term of preventative detention as he awaits charges of organized crime, human trafficking and rape, according to The Associated Press.
Tate, a former professional kickboxer, was arrested days before New Year’s Eve after Romanian press captured a raid on his home in Bucharest. He cultivated a social media image to his followers as a cigar smoking playboy and, on his now-defunct website, touted what he called a “Ph.D. program” consisting of getting rich off his “girlfriends” on “adult entertainment” webcams.
“Literally, that was my job,” according to Tate’s comments on an archived version of his website, captured on Jan. 8, 2022. “My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she’s quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she’d do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together.”
The website is filled with scantily clad photographs of Tate’s supposed conquests in scenes of decadent luxury. The page’s marquee image show Tate lying on a boat next to four bikini clad women. Others show him sipping wine and liquor with women at posh restaurants and bars and soaking with them in a hot tub. Others show the women lying in provocative poses on a bed and sofa in skimpy underwear.
According to Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), a far darker reality lurked underneath the breezy, sordid images. Tate and his alleged co-conspirators actually kept control of women through violence and physical coercion to sexually exploit them, authorities said.
The 36-year-old Tate has 4.5 million followers on Twitter, where he used to claim that he is being targeted by a massive and inchoate conspiracy by what he calls “The Matrix.” His brother Tristan Tate is charged in the same case, along with two Romanian women. Photojournalists captured the brothers exiting the Bucharest-based appeals court following the ruling.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected appeals from all four defendants challenging another judge granting prosecutors’ request to extend their detention, the AP reported. The previous judge reportedly feared that the British brothers were a flight risk, writing, “the possibility of them evading investigations cannot be ignored” and that they could “leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition.”
Romanian authorities have seized 15 luxury cars and more than 10 properties or plots of land to date, according to The Guardian.
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