Andrew Tate and brother return to Romania for police check-in

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have returned to Romania, where they are facing human trafficking charges, following their trip to Florida after their travel ban was lifted.

The Tate brothers checked in at a police station near Romania’s capital on Monday, complying with judicial control requirements in the case in which they are charged with forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

Andrew spoke with reporters outside the police station in Voluntari and said, “I’m a free person who has not been convicted of anything.”

He added he will “comply with all judicial authorities everywhere around the world because I’m completely innocent.”

The Tate brothers, who are dual U.S.-British citizens, remain under criminal investigation for the trafficking of minors, sex with a minor and money laundering.

Andrew also faces an additional charge of rape. They have both denied any wrongdoing.

The brothers remain under judicial control, which requires them to appear before judicial authorities in Romania when summoned. They were due to check in with a surveillance officer on March 24.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re accused of, it matters what you are proven guilty to have done in a fair court of law,” Andrew said on Monday. “Accusations mean nothing. It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat an accusation on the news. That is garbage.”

The brothers arrived in Romania on March 22, shortly before 1 a.m. local time, nearly one month after a travel ban imposed on them was lifted.

“Spending $185,000 dollars on a private jet across the Atlantic to sign one single piece of paper in Romania. Innocent men don’t run. THEY CLEAR THEIR NAME IN COURT,” Andrew posted on X to his over 10 million followers with a photo of himself on a plane.

After arriving at their residence near the capital, Bucharest, Andrew told reporters they returned because “innocent men don’t run from anything.”

“We’ve come here to prove our innocence because we deserve our day in court,” he said.

“After all we’ve been through, we truly deserve the day in court where it is stated that we’ve done nothing wrong and that we should have never been in court in the first place. We should have never gone to jail. We should have never had our assets seized. We should have never had our names slandered,” he said. “Anyone who believed any of this garbage has a particularly low IQ.”

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In late February, the siblings took a private jet from Băneasa airport in Bucharest for Fort Lauderdale, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made it clear the influencer brothers are not welcome in his state.

DeSantis said his government had “no involvement” in the Tate brothers’ travel to the U.S. and that he learned of their return after reading about it “in the media.”

“Clearly, the federal government has jurisdiction. Whether they want to rebuff his entry into the United States, I have confidence that, whether it’s Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem, they will be looking at that,” DeSantis said during a press conference.

He said that Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, is “looking at what state hooks and jurisdiction we may have to be able to deal with this.”

“But the reality is, is no, Florida is not a place where you’re welcome with that type of conduct in the air,” DeSantis added.

“And I don’t know how it came to this. We were not involved.”

During an appearance on March 3 on the PPD Podcast, Andrew said the governor was caving to media pressure. Tate said he has a U.S. passport and a right to visit his home country. He said he has broken no laws and that he has never even been tried, let alone convicted, of a crime.

The Financial Times reported that Trump’s administration had expressed interest in the brothers’ legal case in Romania at the Munich Security Conference in February.

When asked about the Tates’ travels on Feb. 27, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “I just know nothing about it. We’ll check it out. We’ll let you know.”

Andrew, 38, and Tristan, 36, were arrested near Romania’s capital in late 2022, along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but didn’t set a date. All four deny the allegations.

Andrew, a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.

— With files from The Associated Press