Andrew Tate: Bodyguard says ‘Some girls thought they’d be his next wife’on January 16, 2023 at 10:20 pm

Andrew Tate’s head of security has told the BBC that his boss could be “a little bit paranoid”.

Bogdan Stancu, a former special forces soldier who worked for Mr Tate and his brother for several years, said Mr Tate believed “somebody wanted to hurt him”.

But it was not clear where Mr Tate believed the threat was coming from, he said.

It comes as Romanian police – who raided several more properties belonging to Mr Tate over the weekend – announced that they are expanding their investigation into the social media influencer, who has been accused of rape, human trafficking and running a criminal organisation.

Mr Stancu told the BBC that he never witnessed the former kick-boxing champion behaving aggressively at his compound in Romania and says he was never asked to stop anyone leaving the property.

He accepted that he had occasionally been asked to physically remove some women for being “too drunk” or “making problems”, but said that he never used force.

Asked why he doubted the women who accused his boss, but seemed to never doubt Mr Tate himself, he replied: “I never doubt Andrew.”

But, he said, it was right that the police investigated and that if the Tate brothers were ultimately charged and convicted, they must pay for their crimes.

Over the weekend, police seized several cars from Mr Tate’s extensive collection – including a shiny, dove-grey Porsche – during raids on his properties. The latest police actions have been widely seen as a sign that investigators are expanding their search for evidence in the case.

How Andrew Tate made his money is a key part of this investigation.

Police want to know whether he lured women to Romania with promises of a serious relationship or marriage, before forcing or manipulating them into working for him as models in adult entertainment chat rooms.

They are also looking into rape allegations made by one of the witnesses.

Most of the women who spent time with the Tate brothers in their compound were under 25, Mr Stancu told the BBC, and their expenses were paid for by Andrew Tate.

“Some of the girls believed [they would] be his next wife,” the bodyguard said.

Investigators have confirmed that six women have been identified as potential victims. But last week, two of the women in the investigation publicly denied any mistreatment by the Tate brothers.

The women – who have tattoos reading “Property of Tate” and “Tate Girl” – worked in the compound in Bucharest, where Andrew Tate lived with his brother and the models who staffed his adult web-cam business.

Speaking to Romania’s Antena 1 TV channel, one of the women – identified as Beatrice – said she had been “good friends” with the Tate brothers for two years and had “Tate Girl” tattooed on her arm “out of respect for them”.

The other woman – Jasmin – said she had never seen Mr Tate or his brother Tristan be “aggressive or rude”.

The BBC has verified their identities with a former member of Tate staff.

“I was never threatened,” Beatrice said. “If I was, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to stay in that house.

“You can’t describe me as a victim in the case file if I’m not a victim.”

Describing the moment police first entered the compound in December, Beatrice said 20 police officers charged in and went upstairs to a bedroom where, she says, two other women had locked themselves inside the room in fear of the raid.

“They broke the door down. [The women] screamed,” Beatrice said.

“But the police didn’t see that the key to the bedroom was lying on the bed.”

BBC News has spoken to others who have different memories of the raid.

There is little clarity about what evidence investigators have gathered so far. And among the Tates’ former associates, claims, counter-claims and conspiracy theories exist side-by-side.

No charges have yet been brought, but Mihaela Dragus, spokeswoman for Romania’s National Anti-Trafficking Agency, says the case is already sending a strong message to both traffickers and victims.

“The fact that the justice system has decided to keep the brothers in custody, even during the preliminary phase of the [case], sends a very important message,” she says.

In one of his social media videos, Andrew Tate explains why he moved to Romania in 2017.

“One of [my reasons] is the #MeToo era,” he says. “People say: ‘Oh you are a rapist’. No, I am not a rapist, but I like the idea of being able to do what I want, I like being free.”

“If she goes to the [Romanian] police and says: ‘He raped me yesterday’, they’ll say ok, do you have evidence? Is there CCTV proof?”

None of this is evidence that Mr Tate was involved in human trafficking or rape, but his assessment of Romania’s attitude to sexual crimes is not wrong, says Laura Stefan, a legal expert and prominent anti-corruption campaigner working with the Expert Forum think tank.

“In a way, he’s right,” she told me. “Listening to him, the way he explained why he came here, I could relate to that; I thought he made a good calculation – unfortunately.”

But she says things are changing.

“Romania has a serious problem with trafficking, and I think the Romanian authorities have come to understand that this has to be dealt with,” she explained.

“That means not only investigating a handful of hotshots, but also working with the victims and providing them with support.”

Last year, Romania made enough progress for the US Trafficking In Persons report to take it off their watchlist.

But the report also repeated concerns about Romanian officials themselves being involved in people trafficking.

This case, involving a controversial, high-profile personality with US-British citizenship, has put a fresh spotlight on how Romania handles allegations of organised crime and sexual exploitation.

Police have less than two weeks to charge the Tate brothers, or find enough evidence to convince a judge to extend their detention while the investigation continues.

Andrew Tate’s reputation is on the line. Romania’s is too.