FILE PHOTO: Andrew Tate gestures towards the media before delivering a press statement outside his house in Voluntari, Ilfov, Romania, August 4, 2023. Inquam Photos/George Calin via REUTERS
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Internet personality Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan left Romania on a private flight for the United States early on Thursday, news website G4media.ro said citing airport sources.
The Tate brothers are under criminal investigation in Romania on accusations of forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. They have denied all wrongdoing.
The Financial Times reported last week, citing sources, that members of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration had pressured Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the Tates, former kickboxers with dual U.S. and British citizenship.
Tate's lawyer and communication team did not immediately comment on the report the Tates had left the country.
Romania's Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said the Tates were mentioned during his brief hallway meeting with Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month.
Pending the criminal investigation, the Tates are under judicial control, a light preventative measure under which they are required to check in with the police regularly.
Until this week, they were also banned from leaving Romania, a measure prosecutors said they lifted.
"The request to change the obligation of not leaving Romania was approved," prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.
"All the other obligations have been maintained, including the requirement to check in with judicial authorities every time they are called."
A first criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial and sent the files back to prosecutors citing flaws in the indictment.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Sharon SingletonEditing by Alexandra Hudson and Sharon Singleton)
