Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate, the online influencers who decamped last month to the United States while facing human-trafficking charges in two European countries, were set to return on Friday to Romania ahead of a criminal proceeding, one of them said Friday.
The British American siblings were expected to arrive at night in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, a representative for them told The New York Times.
The pair, who have millions of followers on social media and are known for their misogynistic views and for flaunting their wealth, arrived in Florida on Feb. 27 after a Romanian court lifted travel restrictions against them.
“Spending 185,000 dollars on a private jet across the Atlantic to sign one single piece of paper in Romania,” Andrew Tate wrote Friday on X. “Innocent men don’t run. THEY CLEAR THEIR NAME IN COURT.”
The Tates’ visit to the United States was polarizing and spawned speculation about whether President Trump, with whom the brothers have openly aligned themselves, had used his influence to allow them to travel. But Mr. Trump said he knew nothing about it.
They received a chilly reception from two top Florida officials, with Gov. Ron DeSantis saying that they were not welcome there and the state’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, also a Republican, opening a criminal investigation into them.
It was not clear how long the Tates were planning to stay in Romania, where they were arrested in 2022 on accusations of luring women to the country and sexually exploiting them.
Joseph McBride, their lawyer in the United States, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
According to Romanian prosecutors, the brothers misled several women into believing that they wanted a relationship with them. The women were instead housed in a compound near Bucharest and forced to appear in online pornographic videos, prosecutors said.
But a Bucharest court set back the case in December, when it found that it did not meet the requirements for a trial. Prosecutors vowed that they would continue to pursue the charges.
While the criminal proceedings have been playing out in Romania, the British authorities have pursued the Tates’ arrest on charges of rape and human trafficking. A group of women suing Andrew Tate there over claims of sexual assault has pressed the British government to have him and his brother extradited from Romania.
And an American woman filed a lawsuit against the brothers last month in Florida, accusing them of luring her to Romania, conspiring to coerce her into sex work and defaming her after she gave testimony to the Romanian authorities.
Benjamin Bull, a lawyer for the woman who is the plaintiff in the civil case and the general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in a statement on Friday that the lawsuit was proceeding.
“The Florida court still has jurisdiction over them no matter where they are physically located, so we are not concerned that they are going back to Romania,” he said.
The arrival of the Tate brothers in the United States divided conservatives, including those in the media. The brothers, who have not responded to requests for an interview, have appeared on podcasts that support Mr. Trump and were welcomed by Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and an ally of the president.
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has also sided with the brothers in the past, calling the jailing and house arrest of Andrew Tate “absolute insanity” in a May 2023 social media post.
The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Not all conservatives have sympathized with the brothers, who have been criticized by the commentators Megyn Kelly and Ben Shapiro.
It was not clear whether the Tates’ departure from the United States might play a role in the preliminary criminal inquiry that Mr. Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, opened earlier this month.
His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. Nor did a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis.
While the brothers were staying in Florida, Andrew Tate confronted Mr. DeSantis over his recent comments that they were not welcome there and that the state was looking into whether it had jurisdiction in the matter.
“I dare you to arrest me and charge me so I can clear my name in a court of law,” Mr. Tate wrote on X. The brothers even met with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, during their time in the United States, according to their lawyer.
“I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING ANDREW TATE HAS EVER SAID,” the rapper said on X this month.
