The manosphere influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, moved to Romania a decade ago to build an online-pornography empire. They kept their recruits in a development north of Bucharest known as American Village. “I’ve done this with over 100 girls,” Andrew said, about compelling women into sex work. “I almost sound evil. But I’m not.” In 2022, their compound was raided by armed police, and a SWAT team was deployed to take the women in the villa into protective custody. Since then, the brothers have faced ongoing investigations into allegations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, though they have yet to face trial.
The Tates agreed to meet with Heidi Blake for her investigation for The New Yorker. During her visit, the brothers strenuously denied that they had ever hurt a woman. “I’ve never done anything wrong in my life,” Andrew said. He insisted that none of the women he employed had accused him of crimes, adding, “They’re still my friends.” By the time police raided his properties, he said, “the webcam business—which, by the way, is not illegal—had been closed for ten years.” But that account is starkly contradicted by the accounts of more than a dozen women, who described being groomed, trafficked, or sexually assaulted by the Tates—as well as by thousands of leaked messages and the brothers’ own persistent boasts to their friends and followers. Read Blake’s report:
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