Andrew Tate claimed a woman accusing him of rape followed him to Romania and made up the allegation when he refused to buy her sister a €200,000 house, it emerged today.
He also told judges in Bucharest that ‘it’s time for this circus to end’ as he argued that prosecutors had only considered ‘small snippets’ of information relevant to the case.
The British-American former kickboxer, 36, has maintained his innocence since he was arrested with his brother, Tristan, 34, over allegations of rape, human trafficking and setting up an organised crime group on December 29 2022.
He said the rape allegation against him lacked ‘concrete evidence’ at the Court of Appeal in the Romanian capital earlier this month.
His brother Tristan was seen this morning protesting his innocence to journalists outside the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Romania, where they have been moved for questioning.
Police officers escort Andrew, right, handcuffed to his brother Tristan, left, outside the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Romania on Thursday
Former kickboxer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been held since December on charges of being part of an organised crime group, human trafficking and rape
Earlier this month, the Bucharest Court of Appeal heard Andrew Tate’s defence against allegations that he raped a woman staying with him in the eastern European country between November 2021 and April 2022.
Romanian news outlet Gandul reports that the woman asked to move to Romania with him and filed a rape allegation nearly six months later when he refused to give her money to buy a house and become a TikTok star.
The woman reportedly had a drug addiction when they met at the strip club she worked at in London.
Tate said he allowed the woman to move to Romania with him on her own.
Due to her drug problem, the woman was told to stay with Tate’s assistant, Georgiana Naghel, who was also arrested as part of the investigation.
Police claim Naghel and ex-police worker Luana Radu acted as the brothers’ lieutenants, helping to keep six women like prisoners and forcing them to make online porn videos.
Tate claims, however, that his accuser raised a complaint after he refused to give her money to ‘open a bar on the beach, to play in a television show and to become famous on TikTok’.
He alleges that the woman asked for €200,000 to buy a house for her sister in Chisinau, the capital of neighbouring Moldova.
Andrew Tate (pictured in handcuffs) and his brother were moved to DIICOT on Wednesday, where prosecutors examined electronic equipment confiscated during the investigation in their case, in Bucharest.
Andrew and his brother moved into a converted warehouse in Romania, which they staffed with armed guards, in 2017.
At their safehouse on the outskirts of Bucharest, the Tate brothers had a video chat studio where several women were found during a police raid in April 2022.
Prosecutors claim the brothers lured women into the studio where they were sexually exploited through ‘acts of physical violence and mental coercion (through intimidation, constant supervision, control and invocation of alleged debts)’, and made to produce and share pornographic material.
Andrew had boasted in a YouTube video before his arrest that the women who stayed with him were not allowed to leave; he said, ‘you don’t go nowhere’.
Tate is also accused of raping the Moldovan woman, who he alleges followed him from London, in March 2022, which he categorically denies.
On Thursday, brother Tristan, also a former professional kickboxer, said to journalists: ‘What evidence is there against Tristan Tate? There is none. That should be the news of the day.’
Andrew Tate was not seen speaking to cameras today.
On a podcast prior to his arrest, when asked why he moved to Romania initially, Tate said ‘being able to evade rape allegations’ was his motivation.
He added: ‘I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.’
The brothers’ alleged sex trafficking victims claimed they would call them ‘slaves’ and duped them into becoming webcam porn workers with promises of marriage.
The brothers’ head of security told the BBC that some of the women who spent time with the brothers at their compound in Romania ‘misunderstood the reality and believed [they would] be [Andrew Tate’s] next wife.
‘When they realised the reality, it’s easy to transform from a friend into an enemy, and make a statement to the police.’
Andrew Tate is led in handcuffs to Bucharest’s directorate for investigating organised crime and terrorism building on Thursday
Tate was handcuffed to his brother Tristan as police escorted them to the police HQ
The brothers have denied the allegations made against them.
Asked if he had hurt any women, Tate said: ‘Of course not’.
No charges have yet been laid against them, with Andrew saying in his first public comment since his arrest yesterday: ‘They know we have done nothing wrong.
‘This file is completely empty. Of course it’s unjust. There is no justice in Romania.’