Controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate have arrived in the U.S., more than two years after they were arrested in Romania on charges including human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women.
Andrew Tate, 38, is a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has racked up a massive social media following, particularly among young men and schoolboys, to educators' alarm. He's been described as the "King of Toxic Masculinity" and one of the "internet's most controversial figures." Tristan, 36, is also a former kickboxer and self-described entrepreneur.
The two had been under a travel ban — and spent several months under house arrest near Bucharest — since their arrest in December 2022. They remain under criminal investigation in Romania, even as they are permitted to leave the country.
The brothers deny all wrongdoing. Andrew has insisted Romanian authorities have no evidence and has repeatedly invoked "The Matrix," a term that several male right-wing figures have used to decry what they see as conspiracies against them.
The Tates' lawyer, Joseph McBride, posted on X Thursday morning that the brothers, who hold dual U.S.-U.K. citizenship, "have returned home to America."
"Yesterday — Romania rightly decided it didn't have the evidence needed to hold them any longer," he wrote.
The brothers landed in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., around midday Thursday, their spokesperson Mateea Petrescu told the Associated Press.
When asked about their arrival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that while the decision to rebuff their entry lies with the Trump administration, the state's attorney general is looking into what authority "we may have to be able to deal with this."
"The reality is: No, Florida is not a place where you're welcome with that type of conduct up in the air," DeSantis said. "I don't know how it came to this. We were not involved, we were not notified."
In response, McBride tweeted that the Tates are not only American citizens, but plaintiffs in a high-profile defamation suit being litigated in Palm Beach County. They sued an unidentified American woman in 2023, accusing her of giving fabricated evidence to Romanian authorities. She filed a countersuit against them earlier this month.
The exact circumstances of the brothers' release are unclear, though they follow reports that Trump administration officials pressured Romania to lift the travel restrictions. Andrew Tate is a vocal supporter of the president.
"The Tates will be free, Trump is the president," Tate posted earlier this month on X, where he has over 10 million followers. "The good old days are back. And they will be better than ever."
Romania's anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said Thursday in a press release that prosecutors approved a "request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania." The statement did not say who made the request.
DIICOT and Tate's legal team did not immediately respond to NPR's request for more information. The State Department declined to comment.
Romanian prosecutors also said that other "judicial control measures" remain in place, including a requirement that the brothers must return for court appearances whenever summoned.
In addition to their Romanian cases, the Tates also face separate allegations of tax evasion and sexual violence in the United Kingdom. A Romanian appeals court ruled in March 2024 that the pair could be extradited to the U.K., but only after the conclusion of Romanian legal proceedings.
After landing in Florida, Andrew Tate told journalists outside the airport that Romanian prosecutors had decided "because we have no active indictment in court, to let us go and return." And he stressed that the two have not been convicted of any crimes.
"We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty and I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood," he added.
As questions swirl about what might happen next, here's a look at the divisive social media personality and the cases against him.
What to know about Andrew Tate
Tate first became an international name through his career as a kickboxer, winning several world titles.
In 2016, he was kicked off the British version of reality TV show Big Brother over a video of him hitting a woman with a belt. Tate said the video was a "total lie" that had been edited to make him look bad.
On social media, Tate became a vocal supporter of former President Trump and was spotted around Washington, D.C., with prominent conspiracy theorists and on right-wing talk shows.
After styling himself as a self-help influencer for men, he was banned from Twitter in 2017 for saying women should bear responsibility for being sexually assaulted. His Twitter account was reinstated in November 2022 after Elon Musk took ownership of the platform.
At various points, Tate has been banned from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok for similarly misogynistic remarks.
Wealth is also a focus for Tate, who often posts about luxury cars, yachts and jets on his X account. Several of his business pursuits have aimed to teach others how to acquire a similar kind of lifestyle.
He ran an online education platform called Hustlers University, which aimed to "empower men with an entrepreneurial mindset to become the best versions of themselves." After it was shut down in 2022, he launched a rebranded version called The Real World.
Tate has said he moved to Romania in 2017, at least in part because authorities there were less likely to look into sex crimes allegations. In a 2024 assessment, the U.S. State Department said the Romanian government "does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking."
"I'm not a rapist but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want," Tate said in a since-removed YouTube video reported by NBC News.
The brothers have been charged in Romania
The Tate brothers were arrested — alongside two Romanian women — in December 2022 on charges including human trafficking and starting an organized crime group.
DIICOT alleged at the time that the suspects recruited women who were then subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion," sexually exploited by group members and forced to perform in pornography to reap "important financial benefits." One woman was raped repeatedly in early 2022, DIICOT alleges.
Tate has consistently denied those allegations, tweeting at one point that "anyone who believes I'm a human trafficker is genuinely a moron."
While the Tates were indicted in 2023, there is no date set for a trial.
DIICOT launched a second investigation against the Tates in 2024, over a separate set of allegations including human trafficking of minors, sex with a minor and money laundering.
The brothers won another legal victory on Thursday: Reuters reported — citing a representative for the brothers — that a Romanian court lifted a seizure on some of their assets, two years after authorities confiscated dozens of luxury cars and watches worth nearly $4 million from their compound near Bucharest.
They also face multiple allegations in the United Kingdom
The brothers are also accused of tax evasion, which they deny, in a separate civil case in the U.K.
In 2024, the Devon and Cornwall Police went to court to claim money from the Tates and a third unnamed person. They accused the brothers of not paying any tax on 21 million pounds (about ($26.5 million) in revenue from their online businesses between 2014 and 2022. A British court ruled in December that police could seize more than 2.6 million pounds ($3.3 million) from them.
U.K. authorities also issued arrest warrants for the brothers last year over allegations of sexual aggression in a separate case dating back to 2012 through 2015. The Tates were briefly detained in March on a European arrest warrant issued by British authorities — after which the Romanian court approved their eventual extradition to face charges in the U.K.
Separately, four women British women are suing Andrew Tate in the U.K., in a civil suit accusing him of sexual violence and physical abuse. Three of the women had previously reported Tate to local authorities, but the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute him in 2019.
Matthew Jury, a lawyer representing the four women, strongly condemned the Tates' release in a tweet on Thursday, calling the news "equal parts disgusting and dismaying."
"Any suggestion that the Tates will now face justice in Romania is fanciful," he wrote. "The UK authorities must take immediate steps to secure their extradition to the UK to face charges for the offences of human trafficking and rape they are alleged to have committed in this jurisdiction."
This story includes reporting from 2022 by then-NPR reporter Emily Olson.
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