Andrew Tate believes he is above the law. Romania proved him wrong. (2023)

Andrew Tate, the no-nonsense online influencer and self-proclaimed "King of Toxic Masculinity", makes no secret of why he chose Romania as his home and business base.

"I enjoy living in a society where my money, influence and power mean I am not inferior or subject to any law," Tate said.tell his fans.

But like most of what the former kickboxer told his millionsyoung male followerOn social media - including claiming to be a billionaire and holder of 19 passports - Tate said Romania, a safe haven for antisocial behavior, was more fiction than reality.

Romanian authoritiesarrest mr. tate, a US and UK citizen, and his brother Tristan were charged in December with human trafficking, rape and forming an organized crime group. The pair, who spent three months in a prison in the capital Bucharest, deny any wrongdoing,Now under house arrest, awaiting trial.

Their house occupies a sprawling compound in a dark cul-de-sac in Voluntari, a small town outside Bucharest dotted with new office buildings and abandoned vacant lots. It looked more like an industrial warehouse than a den for a man who bragged about his vast wealth and posted videos of himself piloting private jets and driving fast cars with beautiful women.

The luxury cars that once filled the courtyard, including Rolls-Royces, Porsches, Aston Martins and BMWs, have been seized by Romanian authorities. The only vehicle left is the massive Russian Lada. Not worth picking up.

In the ranking of clean governments, Romania is still well below most other EU member states.Corruption Perception IndexFrom the perspective of Transparency International, only Bulgaria and Hungary rank lower. And Romania, according toState Department's 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, remains the "main country of origin for sex trafficking" in Europe.

But Romania has made serious efforts in recent years to combat the endemic corruption and widespread lawlessness that has long plagued the country - something that has clearly appealed to Mr. Tate. Prior to his arrest, he said he enjoyed "living in a country where anyone can be corrupt", where anyone can pay a $50 bribe to get away with a speeding ticket.

Eugen Vidineac, a Romanian lawyer who defends Tate, said his client "said a lot of stupid things" but after his arrest he "doesn't think Romania is so corrupt anymore".

Since Tate made Romania her home base around 2016, the country's anti-trafficking agency has expanded its team and launched a billboard, TV and internet campaign warning women to beware of "boy crushes". Tate is accused of using this tactic to lure vulnerable women into his backyard to appear in online sex videos.

The State Department report said that while Romania "has not fully met minimum standards to eliminate human trafficking", "it is making significant efforts to do so".

The office opened 1,246 new human trafficking investigations last year, double the number in 2021.

Monica Bosev, president of the Open Door Foundation, a private organization that runs shelters for women fleeing the sex trade, said Tate "wasn't the only misogynist doing scary things to women on social media." she "misjudged" her belief that anything could happen in Romania.

"We still have big problems to solve, but there have been real improvements and we finally have hope," with the abuse and exploitation of women increasingly being treated as a crime by society and the authorities, Bosseff said.

For Silvia Tabusca, a law professor at the Romanian-American University in Bucharest who has worked with prosecutors on human trafficking cases, Tate's big mistake was not so much misjudging Romania's legal and social climate, despite including a young American, allegedly included a woman among his victims.

Mrs. Tabuska said that without pressure from the United States to investigate Mr. Tate, "I'm not sure Romanian prosecutors would have touched him".

Like Tabusca, Tate's lawyers attribute what they say is the Romanian authorities' unexpected enthusiasm for their client to the US intervention, which they say began last year after a young Florida woman became concerned that Tate had kept his daughter in custody. captive and demanded that the State Department do something about it.

The mother's plea brought U.S. authorities to Romania for help and led to a criminal investigation last April -- shortly after the daughter told her mother she was in Romania and living in Tate's compound, lawyers said. Investigators tracked the band, monitored their phone, and tracked their every move and communication online.

The details of what they found remain secret and, according to the lawyers with access to the file, offered no evidence of criminal conduct, only disrespect. "My client's problem," he said, "is his lifestyle. But lifestyle is not a crime. What matters is what is illegal, not what is immoral."

For his part, Mr. Tate gave a typically exaggerated explanation for his arrest. A day after armed police raided his residence, he told his Twitter followers that "The Matrix has sent its agents" and now stands at 6.6 million. "The Matrix" is Tate's umbrella term for the "woke" corporate elite, traditional politicians and feminists who plot to deceive men.

Prosecutors allege that Tate lured women into his residence and then forced them to act as performers on pornographic cameras. The attorney said there was no camera studio at Mr. Tate and his client never forced anyone to live or work there. The Tate brothers were "famous; they were rich; they were young and beautiful," he said, adding, "What good is it to force women into slavery?"

The only people living in the compound were his brothers and his girlfriend, the lawyer said. He acknowledged that some of the women appeared in videos Tate posted, but said they did so voluntarily and hoped it would help them gain a following on social media. "He never took money from the girl," said the lawyer.

The website for one of Tate's companies, an online college that offers "doctoral degrees," is down. The "process" in "Tricks for Chasing Girls" - tells a different story. He boasted that Mr. Tate "owns and operates a strip club and webcam studio" and "has high-quality women living with him and making money full-time".

The program, which costs more than $400 to enroll in, is sold with the promise of teaching students "how to build an army of women so devoted to you that they can get as many girls as you want."

Boseff, head of the Open Doors Foundation, said most of the 1,200 women who have passed through his group's shelter over the past decade have been arrested by traffickers posing as "boyfriends" and often sexually assaulted. Love and loyalty instead of being forced to work as a prostitute.

She said Tate understands that "everyone wants to be loved, cared for and heard words of encouragement" - needs that can make young women with troubled homes particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

Statistics compiled by anti-trafficking agencies show that 74% of victims are recruited by acquaintances, friends, neighbors or even relatives.

Since his release from house arrest in late March, Tate has reinvented himself as a philanthropist, claiming to have founded dog shelters, rebuilt a Romanian orphanage and worked"To save the world."

A court in Bucharest on Friday extended his house arrest for another month after discrediting the Tate brothers' new promise of good deeds.

"Romania is not as corrupt as Tate imagined and hoped", says Mihaela Dragos,A police officer from the Romanian National Anti-Trafficking Agency.

Delia Marinescu contributed reporting from Bucharest.