Law&Crime Sidebar - Andrew Tate: 7 Developments in Human Trafficking Case Since Arrest

Episode Date: January 28, 2023

Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, were arrested in Romania a month ago for allegations of human trafficking and organized crime. The Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber breaks down seven developments in the Tate brothers' case since their arrest.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller

that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Every class you learn in school, every TV program you watch, every website you find, all of them are created to keep your mind inside of a box. Because by keeping you inside of a box, they can keep you broken. When they keep you you broke, you must adhere to society's rules and laws, even if you know they're unfair, so you have enough money to eat. The criminal case of Andrew Tate is continuing, and there have been some major development

since his shocking arrest. We break them down. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Andrew Tate. So much has happened in the last month or so with the social media star and former kickboxer that we thought, why don't we? we do the seven major developments in the Andrew Tate case. Number one, I'm sure you guessed it,

his arrest. I mean, this was a shock. This came out of nowhere. In fact, it took us a minute here to actually confirm this was real. And you know what? It certainly was. We learned that Romanian authorities detained Tate, his brother Tristan, and two other women in late December on human trafficking and rape charges. Prosecutors allege that the defendants, quote, created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing, and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost. They've described how there are six people who were, quote, sexually exploited, and that, quote, 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. So it seems that the allegations may center on a webcam business that Tate had operated. Tate allegedly had called this business a scam in the past, and it's been reported that he would entice women into his circle by getting them to fall in love with him. This is also called the lover boy method. According to Romanian authorities, the Tate brothers recruited women by, quote, misrepresenting their intention to enter into a marriage or cohabitation relationship. and the existence of genuine feelings of love.

Attorney Jenny Alcotti, who specializes in human trafficking, explained it best. This is how you hear how women get groomed. So he calls it the lover boy strategy or method. This is what we call grooming in human trafficking, which is basically that the trafficker, whoever it may be, pretends as though they want to be in a relationship with the woman, that they love them, that they're going to save them from the horrible, reality that they're in right now. And then that is how they get them to be forced to stay with

them, unfortunately. And they start gaining access into their life, learning about their family, learning about, you know, their past. And that is what gets them to be able to manipulate these women. So it's not new. It's not uncommon. His term of lover boy is just a different terminology for grooming these women into trafficking. In my legal experience and in my opinion, especially with the experience that I have in these cases is that I think society is very ignorant and uneducated as to what human trafficking is. It is typically that you see women who are vulnerable, who are not in the best place in their lives. And I think I read something where there were women 25 and under that were working for him. And that is very young. And those women tend to be victim blamed or

victim shamed. And that's really what you see with human trafficking is the level of manipulation that traffickers have over these victims and survivors is just unbelievable. The threats that they put on them, their inability to eat or have food or water is a high level of manipulation that you see commonly with human trafficking. Now let's get into the fact that at the time of this recording, Tate and his brother are still locked up. That's right. They're still detained in Romanian jail. Now, we know that when they were first arrested on December 29th, the court had granted the prosecutor's request to keep Tate behind bars for 30 days under Romanian law. Tate appealed that. It was denied. And then recently, a judge ordered that Tate

remained locked up for another month until February 27th. Why? Why keep them detained? Well, to help better explain that, we spoke with Romanian lawyer, Stefan Loredan. That's totally right. In my opinion, And I was predicting that, like actually in my YouTube videos, I was predicting that. I'm not surprised. And here's the thing. I don't know if you watch the news lately, but there were some new rights that were happening on some of the locations owned by Andrew Tati Romania and supposedly some of the locations of their business partners, which means that there are new witnesses in the case, there are new evidence going on, which translates into the prosecutor needing more time for the investigation.

So it's a natural thing that happened. I didn't feel like he had enough time in the first 30 days period to gather all the evidences. And that's pretty much what's happening. Because right now we are not into the trial phase. We are in the investigation phase, which can go up to. I mean, they can detain him for like 180 days if they want to, right? Is that the maximum? Is that the maximum?

Yeah. Yeah, that's the maximum. Like they can extend 30 days, 30 days up to 180 days. And in this period, all the prosecutor has to do is get a maximum. further evidence, and he has the right to do so. What avenues does Andrew Tate have, if this is extended every month, every month, to try to appeal it to, you know, I know he appeals it. Does he have any successful grounds to be released earlier?

Since he's a, he's presenting a threat in terms of living the country, I don't think he's going to be left in freedom, at least in the investigation phase. Now, I should tell you that Tate and his brother were escorted in handcuffs, to Romania's Directorate for investigating organized crime and terrorism as prosecutors conducted a forensic examination of the brothers digital devices. Now, anyone who knows us or follows us here on law and crime, this is a little sidebar here on sidebar. You should know that cell phone, iPads, computers, they can be very telling in a criminal prosecution. They can provide a trail of evidence. They can help with issues of intent or cover up. And here, maybe show something of this

reported webcam business. So reviewing those devices become supremely important for prosecutors. But back to them. So as they're leaving this building, they're swarmed by reporters. Listen to what they had to say. Gentlemen, ask the police what evidence there is against me. They have nothing. Ask the police. What evidence is something against me. Yeah, the makers is trying to frame me, but God knows the truth. There's no evidence in my file because I've done nothing wrong. Everybody knows I'm innocent.

It's okay. And we're going to get more into their continued lockup. But there's something else that we have to talk about. Another big development. And that is what is happening. And that is what has happened to Andrew Tate outside of jail. More specifically, what has happened to his property. You see, if anybody knows a thing or two about how Andrew Tate presents himself on social media,

he is very much about success and wealth. The crazy thing about life and the crazy thing about war, it's always been the same. Getting money and getting status is absolutely not really important because without those things, you're going to end up at the bottom of the ladder. Even if you're on the right team, you're going to end up at the bottom of the ladder, right? So if let's say a country, whatever it is, America, we're to conscript right now and go to World War III. If you have no money and no real skills, you're the dude who's in the trench getting blown up. And now Romanian authorities went to Tate's compound in Bucharest and seized assets totaling in the millions.

Cash, luxury cars such as Ferraris, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, expensive watches. is you might be saying, why are they doing this? He hasn't been convicted. Why are they seizing his assets? Well, here's why they're doing that. This is a common procedure in Romania. When you are dealing with crimes, when you are facing crimes that have behind the fact that you can gain monetary, you can make money from those crimes, right?

then they seize usually your assets. So they make sure that in the end, if you are found guilty, they can sell those assets and they can pay the victims and they can pay everybody that was involved and that needs to be paid. As we talk about the case against Andrew Tate, there's also what is happening on the other side. There are those supporting him. In fact, another major development is when we heard from someone connected to Andrew Tate. His head of security, Bogdan Stanchu. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly. Mr. Stanchu spoke to the BBC. And according to him, more than 100 women have come in

and out of the social media stars compound in Romania. He's quoted as saying, some of the girls misunderstood the reality and believed that there would be his next wife. When they realize the reality, it's easy to transform from a friend into an enemy and make a statement to the police. He described women that would pass through as young and stupid, and some would get too drunk and make problems, and that he also said that he never doubts Andrew. Clearly, he seems like an important defense witness, right, in an upcoming case, and kind of gives you an idea of where a potential Andrew Tate defense would go, that these accusers are lying, that they can't be believed. He has said that his boss believes someone's out to get him, that this

maybe this whole system is corrupt. Now, could Mr. Stanchu be telling the truth? Could this be a case of scorned women coming out, providing false information? Sure, we've seen things like that happen before. However, as we discussed earlier, could this also be victim blaming? Manipulation. Maybe someone's saying anything to protect his employer. Does he have an incentive to not tell the truth? Important questions to think about. And so this actually brings me now to another development. And that is that two women who claim to be on Romanian prosecutor's lists of victims say they are not victims. This is not true. I'm talking about these two social media influencers that go by the names Beatrice and Jasmina. It's been two days since I chose to come out

publicly about the recent events of Andrew and Tristan Tate. I really want everyone to see how corrupted the system, the country and the authorities are. Two days and my friends and family are still arrested for crimes they didn't commit two days and i'm still a victim in this case i am not a victim beatrice is not a victim there are no victims in this case and there is no crime i'm not a victim even though the prosecution is telling me i am i've told them this over and over again but they won't change it the election for the new leader of the court has been announced as well and they are using andrew and tristan just to make headlines the prosecution has no evidence to support their claims, and they will find no evidence that there is no truth to this allegation.

Now, that was Jasminah, but going over to Beatrice, she told a Romanian news outlet, quote, I don't understand how we ended up being called victims when we didn't make any statement as if I were a victim. I gave a fair rule statement for them. With what right does the Romanian prosecutor's office accuse me of being a victim? Did I write that in the statement? I didn't write that anywhere. It is an abuse by the prosecutor's office against me.

The girls were never deprived of their freedom. They always had access to the telephone. The door was always open. Now again, could she be telling the truth? Could Jasmina be telling the truth? Absolutely. But could it also be a case where if you believe this lover boy method allegation, could it be that these women were brainwashed into believing they are not victims?

So I'm just playing both sides of how this could be presented if it ever ended up in a court of law. Let's go back to Romanian lawyer, Stefan Loridon. He had a very interesting perspective on this because you would think, wow, this surely helps Andrew Tate, key witnesses, the alleged victims, saying they're not victims, saying this is corruption, of course. Well, according to Stefan, maybe not. There are some girls that supposedly they are victims inside this case and they are coming up. out now and they are claiming that they are not victims and the system is corrupt and they are put as victims against their wills. The idea is that this is doing more bad than good to and rotate because right now the judge and the prosecutor is facing a situation where if they would

be set free, then it means that the whole narrative of the system being corrupt and then being wrong will be accepted. Does that make sense? Just think about it from the prosecutor's perspective or from the judge perspective, right? If two of the allegedly victims in this case are coming out there and are saying that, oh, I'm a victim against my will, the system is corrupted, blah, blah, blah. Then if I would be set you free, then it means that I would accept the fact that the system is corrupting

that you are against your will in this case, right? And so it will make them look bad in a sense. So it's only messing up things in my opinion for Andrew Tate. Even if they are telling the truth, the prosecutor has the right, you know, to auto detect, in a sense, the fact that you might be a victim in this case, even though you don't want to complain about it, even though, you know, so the charge can still stay on because of that.

I found that so interesting. If we release them and end the prosecution, it'll look like this whole thing was corrupt. Well, we have to move forward. We have no choice. And that brings me now to another big development, Andrew Tate speaking from jail. I should. Maybe that was the wrong way to say it. I could say it's him, but is it really him? It's probably not. I'm really mentioning how his Twitter account has been quite active. There have been messages posted every day on his Twitter account, maybe under his direction. I'll give you some of them. Quote, a man without struggle is never going to be a powerful man. The best men you know are men that have been through struggle or depressed and have come out on the other side. If you're going to be a hero, you're going to suffer. There was another one that said, hammers and demons walk amongst you. The Matrix is designed to promote an ideology that makes you weak, poor, and alone.

Negative influences are promoted and paraded to weaken you, while empowering influences get locked in a cell. They can imprison me. They cannot stop the real world from breaking people free. It is your duty to your ancestors and loved ones become financially free. And aside from just the texts, this text that are posted in several posts on Twitter, he also, or whoever's operating the count, also pose videos, too, that this whole prosecution is corrupt, that the prosecutors are merely trying to look for evidence that they will never find because it doesn't exist.

Katanin Taki, a Romanian journalist, writes for the National Datrow website, an article where he makes a connection between the Tate Brothers case and the Romanian election year, 2004. His taste that the director for investigating crime and terrorism has had the leadership position vacant since 2020. And ironically, on the 28th of December, a day before the Tate brothers were arrested, the Minister of Justice puts out an ad stating they want to occupy this position. By arresting the most Googlemen in the world, the present management team would score a victory in the run for leadership. can look at this and say, okay, he wants to reframe the narrative, that he's pleading his innocence.

I mean, after all, Romanian law, the Romanian system, very different than what we know in the United States and our legal system. Maybe perhaps by posting these messages, he can put pressure on the Romanian authorities to change their position. It's an argument. We've seen defendants in the United States who have fought a battle both on the legal front and in the court of public opinion, not surprised we're seeing these messages. It is an argument. It's a way for him to defend himself. But as human trafficking attorney, Jenny Alcotti, explains, there could be something else. From my experience, traffickers never admit that they are at fault.

The typical approach is that they have the women, they victim blame. They have the women say, oh, I was doing this all myself. So right now, what he's trying to do, in my opinion, is cover his tracks. And not only has Tate proclaimed that he's being. unjustly detained, but that his conditions are deplorable. So he apparently sent this email to subscribers of his newsletter, but it was also basically reiterated on his Twitter page, quote, they're trying to break me. This was in the email.

Quote, thrown inside a cell without light, cockroaches, lice, and bedbugs are my only friends at night. When the guards bring me to and from the courtroom, I stay absolutely respectful. they try to pour hatred into my heart. Now, in his email, Tate promised to update his fans with, quote, daily lessons from unjust imprisonment, and he also asked them to stick with me at all times. Now, whether you believe or you don't believe Andrew Tate regarding his innocence or his claims on social media about women and money and life, when it comes to his description

of his current living conditions, though, apparently, at least according to Stefan Loredan, Mr. Tate might be right because I was looking a little bit about what Romanian jail conditions are like and I think there was an article that came out that the U.S. State Department had criticized what they called inadequate sanitation and the lack

of natural light in Romanian jails. You think he's telling the truth about it? Yeah, 100%. In fact, right now I'm preparing like a video it should be out tomorrow or whatever about prison conditions in Romania and I covered that as well. the

how do you say it like the bed and the furniture is very old it's like 30 14 years old there are cockroaches there are rats so it's not a very

sanitary place to be in my opinion right and they don't give about the prisoners if you ask me about the inmates right even the food

is like the worst thing so he's totally right I tend to agree with him on everything he said about that well those are just some of the current development that have happened in the Andrew Tate case.

I imagine we are going to see a lot more. So let's see where it goes and we'll continue to follow it. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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