Andrew Tate once called his sexually explicit webcam business a «total scam» and bragged on his website that he attracted women by making them fall for him. The 36-year-old influencer also bragged on a podcast that he broke a woman’s jaw in a bar fight and «got away with it.»
Those are just some of the details found in an NBC News review of Tate’s media appearances, website logs, and archives from his Instagram and YouTube accounts following his December arrest in Bucharest, Romania, where it lives.
Romanian authorities arrested him, his brother and two women on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group, according to Reuters. Tate has denied the claims and all four have challenged his continued detention.
Tate remains in custody after a Romanian court last week denied his appeal of a judge’s decision to hold him for 30 days, citing the «possibility they evaded investigations,» according to the Associated Press.
The British-American internet personality, most recently known for making misogynistic statements online to his millions of followers, has documented many details about the webcam sex business at the center of the Romanian allegations.
He has detailed in public how his business worked and how he got women involved in it. Much of the material posted to various of his now-suspended social media accounts has been reposted online by both fan and critic accounts.
Tate, a former kickboxer turned self-described «hit trainer,» gained international attention last year for his polarizing rants about women and modern masculinity. His violent and often misogynistic rhetoric drew widespread criticism online, and in August 2022, Tate was banned from Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube for violating the platforms’ community guidelines. Although Twitter permanently suspended her account in 2017 after she tweeted that women should «take some responsibility» for being sexually assaulted, the site reinstated her account late last year. Tate responded to criticism of him in earlier remarks to NBC News, saying that he is simply playing an «online character.»
Tate moved to Romania in 2017, he said on an episode of The Fellas, a comedy podcast.
In April of last year, Tate was first arrested for Romanian authorities who said the US Embassy notified them that an American woman, who was 21 at the time, said she was being held captive by the Tate brothers. She declined to comment with NBC News through a representative. After entering the Tate residence that month, the authorities said they discovered another woman from Romania who said she was also being held captive. The authorities said his investigation was later expanded to include suspicions of human trafficking and rape.
In late December, police arrested Tate and the other defendants after a months-long investigation. Romanian authorities said Six people have been identified who were «sexually exploited» by the group of defendants, and that «an injured person was forced, on two different occasions, by a suspect through the exercise of physical violence and psychological pressure to have sexual relations. ” Authorities did not specify which suspect they were referring to.
The webcam business that Tate ran and spoke of openly is central to these charges, according to Romanian authorities.
In podcast appearances, news interviews and social media posts since 2021, Tate said he hired women to earn money for him by performing in webcam pornography, controlled their behavior and evaded law enforcement. He has also advertised content sold to teach people how they can replicate his business model.
Tate and his brother said mirror in a June 2022 interview that they ran a «total scam» business in Romania that used cam models to lure men into sending them money.
Some of the accusations by the Romanian authorities echo what Andrew Tate has said publicly about his webcam business.
According to romanian authoritiesthe Tate brothers recruited women «by misrepresenting their intent to enter into a marriage/cohabitation relationship and the existence of genuine feelings of love (the loverboy method).»
In an interview with the podcast. fresh and fit in December, Tate said he started his webcam sex business seven years ago when he was «broke». Tate said she texted all five of his girlfriends at the time, whom she said didn’t know each other, and asked them to come live and work with him in Bedfordshire, England.
“I’m going to take care of you and we’ll get rich,” Tate recalled saying.
In a page since removed on the Tate website advertising what he called the “PhD Programme”, he openly described the romantic manipulation of women to promote his business.
“My job was to make women fall in love with me. That was literally my job,” the website said. “My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test her for quality, get her to fall in love with me to the point of doing whatever I told her, and then put her on the webcam so we could get back together. rich together.»
“I have had over 75 girls working for me,” the deleted page read. «Over 50% of my employees were actually my girlfriend at the time.»
On the Fresh&Fit podcast episode, Tate described withholding a month’s salary from his «highest-earning girl» as punishment for getting drunk and throwing up in his bed.
Tate said the woman «went to the police» and accused Tate of assaulting her after he refused to pay her.
He said he was arrested in 2015 in the UK on «suspicion of assault» on the woman. although he said the “case was dropped”, a police raid on his phones and laptops led to “new charges” against him. He did not disclose what the new charges were.
Earlier this month, reported vice that Tate was arrested in 2015 in the UK on suspicion of sexual assault and physical abuse, citing statements by UK authorities and Tate himself. Vice also interviewed two anonymous women who said they reported Tate to the police, one for rape and both for abuse. Tate denied those allegations through a representative, according to Vice. NBC News has not verified the claims of those women.
The Crown Prosecution Service refused to prosecute Tate after police took four years to pass the case, Vice reported. In a statement, police said they apologized to both women for the delays that led to the closure of the case in 2019.
In another archived YouTube video that was posted to his channel, Tate bragged that he created restrictions and rules for the women who worked for him.
«I’m all over the place, so I end up with all these girls stuck in a house sitting there bored, completely in love with me,» Tate said in the clip, which has resurfaced online in the wake of his most recent arrest. . “And of course they don’t come out. They are not allowed to go out… You stay in the house. You are not going anywhere. There are no restaurants, there are no clubs, nothing.
romanian authorities saying that the women recruited by Tate’s organization were transported to and housed in Romania, where «through acts of physical violence and mental coercion (through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invocation of alleged debts)», they were allegedly forced to perform for sex via Tate webcam. business.
Tate said it brought in women from other countries to join its webcam operations in the UK and Romania.
In a video Tate sold as part of its “Hustlers University” pay-per-view series, which it promoted as an educational course for fans to replicate its webcam sex businesses, it said women flocked to it from countries like Slovakia. and France.
“They were all from different parts of the world,” Tate said of the women she recruited. «I made them all fly, I sat them all together.»
As well as moving from the UK to Romania to run his business, Tate He has said he evaded previous accusations of rape and physical abuse and of punishing women for accusing him of misconduct.
Tate has said in multiple interviews that he has been violent towards women. During another episode of The pomp podcast recorded in 2021, he said he punched a woman and broke her jaw during a bar fight. Tate said he «ended up in court» after he was accused of causing «bodily harm» but «he ultimately got away with it.» He said that he was found not guilty. NBC News has not verified the details of the encounter.
He told Fresh&Fit that this incident motivated him to move to Romania. In a YouTube video from Tate’s channel, which was banned in August 2022 for violating YouTube’s hate speech policy and community guidelines, Tate said he moved from the UK to Romania because it was less likely that the country to file rape complaints.
«I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want,» Tate said in a video since removed.