Law&Crime Sidebar - Andrew Tate Sex-Trafficking Allegations: Latest Investigation Developments

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

Controversial social media personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested on sex-trafficking allegations by Romanian authorities on December 29. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber and Romania-based attorney Stefan Loredan break down the latest developments in the investigation.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.

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Andrew Tate. That's right. We got to talk about what's happening with Andrew Tate. The social media personality and former kickboxer and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania. Romanian authorities have been investigating the Tate brothers since April 22, where they raided his home on allegations that he was holding women captive. That's not true. That's not what happened.

And I've said this many times, but people continue to ignore it and continue to purport the lie because that's how the internet works, right? They continue to just keep pushing the lie because it gets more clicks or because they personally don't like me and they want to use it as an excuse

to pretend I'm a bad person. I can sit here and be vain and arrogant and say they're jealous of me and my success and they want to find a way to drag me down, but that's beside the point. The actual point is it's not true. And I was swatted just like anyone else was. And if I had actually hurt anybody, the Romanian police would have me in jail.

But interestingly, this was only after a Twitter spat with activist Greta Thunberg in late December that Tate and his brother were officially detained by Romanian authorities on human trafficking and rape charges. There are six reported victims in this case. According to a statement from Romanian prosecutors, quote, The four suspects appear to have 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. And now we have some updates for you in this case, like how several of Andrew Tate's cars have been seen and how he's appealing an order that extended

his detention in jail by 30 days. So it's important in life to know what you know and what you don't know. I am not ashamed to admit I am no Romanian law expert. It's just the case. I'm not. Well, our next guest is. Our next guest is Stefan Loredan. He is a Romanian lawyer. He has been following this case, and you can check him out on his YouTube page where he talks all about it. Stefan, thank you so much for taking the time to come here on Cybar. I want to get right into it.

What exactly are the charges that Andrew Tate and his brother are facing? How serious is this? And, you know, what is your reaction to the case? We're trying to get some more context. Okay. First of all, thanks for having me. I'll get right into it. So Andrew Tate and his brother of Tristan, alongside.

two Romanian women are facing charges related to rape, human trafficking, and then also the establishment of a criminal organized group. That's the main three charges they are facing right now. Now, the investigation dates back to April 2022, back when the Romanian police has raided their house after a U.S. citizen made them a call to the U.S. embassy saying that there's a U.S. woman, it was one of his relatives, right, this U.S. woman, was held at Tate's brother's house against her will. So that's when really everything started. Now, of course, the investigation started back then and in a time span of eight months until December, the police and the prosecutor has gathered a lot of evidence, right? And on December 29th, once he arrived

in Romania, he has been arrested first for a period of 24 hours. And after this period expired, the prosecutor went in front of the judge and proposed, because that's how the legal system works in Romania, the prosecutor proposes, and the judge can be client or accept, okay? And the prosecutor proposed that they keep them under arrest for a period of 30 days, and the judge accepted, and now they are under arrest. Now, this decision has already been appealed by their lawyer, and we are going to hear from the judge on 10th of January, so in like four days from now. My prediction is that they are going to be kept under arrest for the entire period.

But this is not like they are being in prison right now. It's only a security measure, and it's mainly for the. two main reasons. First of all, so they can't leave the country, so they can't flee the country, because they were very vocal about having these different citizenship, these different passports, and so this is like one of the biggest mistake that can happen. And the second is so that they don't intervene with the witnesses, so they don't influence the witnesses and their statements and everything, right?

So that's why they're being kept. Now, I would say that the next logical thing that we should look forward to in this case is the appeal that is going to be ruled over. four days on January 10th, and if it's going to be declined, as is my prediction, right, as I predict, then on January 29th, the 30 days period will be expiring, and the prosecutor has to come again in front of the judge, and he's going to propose one of these, the following three measures. It's either going to propose to extend the arrest for another 30 days, or keep them, second one is to keep them under arrest at home arrest for 30 days, or the third one

is to set them free, but they would have to come to the police every week to sign some papers that they are still in Romania and they are not going to be allowed to live the country. Now, again, my prediction is that they are going to be set free. At least that's my prediction. They are going to be set free. And what makes you see that?

Why do you think they be set free? Well, I think they are going to be set free because I feel like it's very, it's not so often that they manage to keep them for a longer period than 30 days. Now, keep in mind that they can keep them for up to 800, 180 days, sorry, so they can just extend this period, 30 days, 30 days, 30 days, right? But usually what happens is they only keep them for 30 days so that they can gather further

evidence in the case from the witnesses and everything. And after that, they can be judged with them in freedom. Why did they seize Andrew Tate's cars? Because the way that I read it, it was to fund the investigation. Am I understanding that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is a common procedure in Romania. When you are dealing with, with, with, crimes when you are facing crimes that that have behind the fact that you can gain monetary you can 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 so just taking a step back what he was rated for back in april and what he was arrested for in december they're related right and the the idea here is that they create some sort of network where they were, was it lying to the women? Was it, what the allegation is, forcing them to be exploited for pornographic reasons? I mean, I'm trying to make sense of exactly what they're being accused of here.

That's a great question. Well, the statement that the authorities have made in regards to this case say that he's accused of using the lover boy method in order to lure the victims, like the women's, right, the young ones. Now, the problem is that in Romania, this lover boy, method is very well known and for the last 30 years have been used mostly by criminals, but like mafia bosses, right, to lure women and then exploiting them for prostitution. And as you can imagine, in other countries in the world, this lover boy method is totally fine,

it's totally legal, there's no problem with it. But in my opinion, Andrew Tate and his brother, they are unlucky because Romania already has made a perception about this method and they are associating with those criminals, right? Now, I'm not saying that the woman that they've been luring to them have been used for prostitution. I think mainly what they used this method for was to attract those young women and convert them into the employees for their webcam business. But now, obviously, all the statements that they made on the Internet and everything they said is going to be used against them, and they are going to have a hard time, at least in my opinion, to prove the judge wrong. Let's talk about that.

What is a trial in Romania look like? I mean, in terms of how it's presented by the prosecution and what kind of defenses could be mounted by Andrew Tate and his brother. And when will a trial happen? Yeah. Well, right now we are in the investigation phase. We are yet to move to the trial, right? The next natural step would be the trial, right?

But there's still time. I assume that we are going to stay in the investigation phase for at least like a few months in the next few months. then they're going to move to the trial. And keep in mind that usually when you move to the trial, means that you have evidence because here's how it works in Romania. A judge will look at the evidence that the prosecutor is providing. And if he feels like there's enough evidence against the suspect,

then he's going to push the file further to the trial. If not, he's going to decline it, and he will say to prosecutor, okay, come with more evidence, and then we can move to the trial. So most likely, if they're going to move to the trial, they're going to be convicted, at least in my opinion. And in terms of the prison time, if they are found guilty for all the three infractions, they can face up to 10 to 20 years in prison. Because the rape, it's 5 to 10 years, the human trafficking, 5 to 10 years.

And then the other one, the criminal group, it's 1 to 5 years. What are some potential defenses, though? It's really hard to say. Like, in Romania, we have a simplified version of the trial. But this implies that the suspects recognize the crimes, they've committed. I'm 100% sure that they won't recognize anything, right? And so the trial will go on for like at least one to three years once it gets through the trial. Now, in terms of the defense, I think the lawyer will have to play a game of denying everything and making it

blame somebody else or something like that. But the judge is not stupid. And the legal system Romania, it's not stupid. Okay. The prosecutor is smart. He's a safe prosecutor, one of the highest rank in his category. He's very well known for leading some of the biggest cases against anti-mafia. He has 24-7 security assured by the security forces of Romania because he received a lot of death threats in the past. And what I guess my point here is that I think the prosecutor and the legal system will go all in against Andrew Tate and his brother, unfortunately, and he's going to have a hard time defending himself. Before I let you go, we have about a minute left. What is the standard of proof. So in America, it's beyond a reasonable doubt. It's the highest standard we have

and a jury determines. I mean, obviously, defendants can choose to have a judge here a case, but we usually have a jury decided criminal case. What is the system in Romania in terms of the burden of proof by the prosecution and also who decides it, a judge or a jury? Yeah, it's a very good point. It's totally different in Romania. First of all, the prosecutor has to come with all the evidence, and then the judge will rule over the decision. So there's no jury involved. It's a simple system. Okay, so the lawyer defends the suspects. The prosecutor attacks, if you want, the suspects or charges them, right?

And then the judge rules over the matter, but that's it. Stefan Loredan, really, thanks for taking time to explain this to us. I never knew about this. I think our viewers and our listeners will be very informed about this. Where can everybody find more information about you? Okay, so you can find me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, everywhere, just Stefan Loredan or just write Romanian lawyer and you'll find me. all over the internet. Thank you. And you do work across the globe as well? Yeah. So actually,

I have a business in Dubai where I will provide legal, financial and business development services. Fantastic. Stefan, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, 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 law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.