Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, online influencers who decamped last month in the United States, while facing accusations of human trafficking in two European countries, were to return to Romania on Friday before criminal procedure, one of them said on Friday.
The American British brothers and sisters were to arrive at night in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, said a representative in the New York Times.
The couple, who have millions of followers on social networks and is known for their misogynist opinions and to display their wealth, arrived in Florida on February 27 after a Romanian court has lifted restrictions on them.
“Spend 185,000 dollars on a private jet across the Atlantic to sign a single piece of paper in Romania,” wrote Andrew Tate on X. “Innocent men do not run. They erase their names in court.”
The tates visit to the United States polarized and caused speculation to find out if President Trump, with whom the brothers openly aligned themselves, had used his influence to allow them to travel. But Mr. Trump said he didn’t know anything about it.
They received a cold reception of two senior officials from Florida, Governor Ron Desantis saying that they were not welcome there and the state prosecutor, James Uthmeier, also a republican, opening a criminal investigation.
It was not clear how long the tates provided for staying in Romania, where they were arrested in 2022 to accommodate women in the country and exploit them sexually.
Joseph McBride, their lawyer in the United States, did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Friday.
According to Romanian prosecutors, the brothers induced several women in mistake by making them believe that they wanted a relationship with them. The women were rather accommodated in a complex near Bucharest and forced to appear in online pornographic videos, prosecutors said.
But a Bucharest court set up the case in December, when he concluded that he did not meet the requirements of a trial. The prosecutors promised to continue to continue the accusations.
While the criminal procedures took place in Romania, the British authorities continued the arrest of the tates for rape and deals with human beings. A group of women who pursue Andrew Tate there on allegations of sexual assault pressed the British government so that he and his brother extradite from Romania.
And an American woman brought a legal action against the brothers last month in Florida, accusing them of attracting her to Romania, conspired to force her to sex work and defamped her after testifying to the Romanian authorities.
Benjamin Bull, lawyer for the woman who is the plaintiff in the civil affair and the Advocate General of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said the trial on Friday.
“The Florida court still has jurisdiction over them, no matter where they are physically located, so we are not concerned about the return to Romania,” he said.
The arrival of the Tate brothers in the United States has divided the Conservatives, including those of the media. The brothers, who did not respond to the requests of an interview, appeared on podcasts who support Mr. Trump and were welcomed by Dana White, director general of the Championship of Ultimate Combat and ally of the President.
The eldest son of the president, Donald Trump Jr., also caught up alongside the brothers in the past, calling for the imprisonment and the household residence of Andrew Tate “Absolute insanity” in a social media position in May 2023.
Friday, the State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comments.
Not all conservatives sympathized with the brothers, who were criticized by commentators Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro.
It was not clear if the departure of the United States’s tates could play a role in the preliminary criminal investigation that Mr. Uthmeier, the Florida Attorney General, opened earlier this month.
Friday, his office did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Neither a spokesperson for Mr. Desantis.
While the brothers stayed in Florida, Andrew Tate confronted Mr. Desantis with his recent comments according to which they were not welcome and that the State was looking for whether he had competence in the matter.
“I challenge you to stop and accuse me so that I can erase my name in court,” wrote Mr. Tate on X. The brothers even met the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, during their stay in the United States, according to their lawyer.
“I agree with everything thatrew Tate has ever said,” said the rapper on X this month.
