British law enforcement said in court documents made public on Monday that Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate used a lover boy model to lure women with promises of romantic relationships before coercing them into making online pornography.
The documents, filed in the United States in support of Britain's extradition request, contain the most comprehensive description of the British criminal case against the brothers to date. A detective's summary sets out the basis of the prosecution's case: the brothers encouraged women to travel to their base in Romania with the promise of romantic relationships, before using violence and threats to manipulate them into creating porn.
According to the summary, Andrew Tate persuaded vulnerable women he had formed relationships with to relocate to Romania by telling them they could earn money through his webcam business. Once they arrived, the women became financially dependent on the Tate brothers, who often confiscated their passports, leaving them isolated and under the brothers' control.
The brothers, who have dual US and British citizenship, were arrested in Miami in July after Britain requested their extradition from the US. They have not appeared in a British court to formally answer the charges they face, which include rape and human trafficking, but they have denied wrongdoing. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the newly public documents.
The case against them in Britain is only one front in their legal troubles. They were arrested in Romania in December 2022 over separate allegations of human trafficking and rape, and Romanian prosecutors have alleged they ran a webcam business as part of a trafficking operation. The brothers deny those allegations as well, and have described the cases against them as politically motivated.
The lover boy method described in the documents will be familiar to investigators of trafficking cases, in which romance is used as a tool of control and coercion. Whether the British prosecution can prove its case will now depend on the extradition proceedings playing out in the United States, and on courts in two countries weighing some of the most serious allegations ever made against online influencers.
The publication of the documents marks a significant escalation in the British case against the brothers. Extradition proceedings in the United States are expected to be hard-fought, with the brothers' legal team likely to challenge both the evidence and the process. The allegations, which the brothers deny, are among the most serious faced by public figures in recent years. Women's rights campaigners have welcomed the detail in the documents, saying it sheds light on methods of coercion that are often misunderstood by the public.