BUCHAREST, Romania – Romanian state prosecutors have officially filed a comprehensive criminal indictment against social media personalities Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate, formally charging them with trafficking of minors, money laundering, and sexual offences involving a teenager, the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced in Bucharest on Saturday, September 5, 2026.
The updated filing marks a significant escalation in the protracted cross-border legal battles confronting the two brothers, who hold dual British and American citizenship and have been subject to continuous criminal investigations by Romanian judicial authorities since December 2022.
Okay News reports that the new charges center on allegations that the Tate brothers generated more than $1.2 million (£888,000) in illicit financial proceeds by systematically exploiting and coercing a female victim who was 15 years old at the inception of the alleged offences into performing explicit video chat services.
According to the official indictment particulars released by DIICOT investigators, 39-year-old Andrew Tate is charged with human trafficking of minors, money laundering, and having unlawful sexual relations with a minor.
His younger brother, 38-year-old Tristan Tate, faces formal charges of complicity in the trafficking of minors and separate counts of money laundering.
State prosecutors allege that the teenager was initially recruited in the United Kingdom by Andrew Tate and detained in a residential property in Luton, Bedfordshire, where she was subjected to continuous surveillance, physical intimidation, and emotional coercion to force her participation in lucrative adult webcam productions.
The investigative dossier alleges that she was subsequently relocated to Romania, where she was kept across two separate residential compounds controlled by the brothers to sustain commercial online exploitation, while Tristan Tate is alleged to have acted as an accessory through physical intimidation.
As part of the criminal proceedings, DIICOT has filed a motion with the judiciary seeking the confiscation of four luxury high-performance vehicles valued at approximately £710,000 (around $955,000), which prosecutors allege were purchased using laundered funds generated from the online exploitation ring.
The brothers are currently detained in a federal correctional facility in Miami, Florida, where they remain in custody while contesting formal extradition proceedings initiated by British judicial authorities over separate historic allegations.
The case returns to the Romanian courts after an earlier trafficking indictment filed in 2023 was remitted back to state prosecutors in 2024 by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which cited procedural defects and ruled key prosecution wiretaps and witness testimonies inadmissible.
The Tate brothers have vehemently maintained their innocence throughout the investigation, arguing that the public commentary that earned them tens of millions of online followers represents an exaggerated theatrical persona rather than evidence of criminal conduct.
Speaking in Bucharest following the indictment, the brothers’ principal defence counsel in Romania, Eugen Constantin Vidineac, criticized the prosecution’s decision to resurrect the charges and vowed to challenge the evidentiary basis before trial judges.
“Today’s decision by DIICOT does not determine guilt and it should not be presented as though it does. It represents the prosecution’s latest attempt to bring this case before a court following the failure of its previous indictment to proceed to trial,” Vidineac stated. “The history of these proceedings matters. The previous indictment was subjected to judicial scrutiny and the court identified significant irregularities which prevented the case from moving forward to trial.”
Vidineac emphasized that the defence team will demand rigorous procedural compliance as the dossier undergoes preliminary chamber review.
“DIICOT has now chosen to file a new indictment. We will examine every aspect of it with the same level of scrutiny and we will challenge any evidential, procedural or legal deficiencies through the appropriate judicial process,” the lawyer added. “Our clients continue to reject the allegations against them. They have the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to properly examine the evidence relied upon against them and the right to mount an effective defence.”
Under Romanian criminal procedure, the indictment must undergo a comprehensive judicial review in a preliminary chamber, where a presiding judge will evaluate the admissibility of evidence and the legality of investigative methods before any criminal trial date can be scheduled, even as questions persist over whether DIICOT will formally petition United States authorities for their extradition.
