[imagesource:wikimediacommons]

The self-crowned “king of toxic masculinity” decided to start doing business in Romania because he reckoned he could get away with absolutely anything there.

“I like living in a society where my money, my influence and my power mean that I’m not below or beholden” [to any laws], Tate told his fans regarding his move out of the US.

Then, in December, the Romanian authorities arrested the pugilistic online influencer – a citizen of both the United States and Britain – and his younger brother, Tristan, on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised criminal group.

It turns out, much of what the former kickboxer has told his millions of mostly young male followers on social media – including claims that he is a trillionaire, has 19 passports, and isn’t balding – is often mere figments of his puny-brained imagination.

His proclamation of faith in Romania as a risk-free haven for anti-social behaviour has certainly become more fantasy than reality, notes The Straits Times.

Before his arrest, he said he liked “living in countries where corruption is accessible to everybody”, and where anybody can pay a US$50 (S$67) bribe to get out of a speeding ticket.

The two men, who deny any wrongdoing, are under house arrest and awaiting trial right now.

Much like South Africa, Romania doesn’t fare well in the rankings for clean governments, sitting pretty high up on last year’s Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International. The US also noted that the country remains “a primary source country for sex trafficking” in Europe. All in all, you can see why Tate chose to make the southeastern European country his home and business base. (Thank all the gods that he didn’t come to South Africa because if he did he would absolutely be walking Scott free).

However, in recent years, Romania has been trying to tackle the general lawlessness that has marred the country:

Since Tate established Romania as his base around 2016, the country’s anti-trafficking agency has expanded its staff and launched a messaging blitz on billboards, television and online, warning women against “lover boys”, traffickers who use seduction as a recruiting technique. Tate is accused of using this tactic to lure vulnerable women to his compound to perform in sex videos online.

The State Department report said that while Romania did “not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”, it was “making significant efforts to do so”.

In 2021, a dedicated unit to combat sex trafficking by Romania’s Organised Crime and Terrorism Investigation Directorate was set up, managing to open 1 246 new trafficking investigations last year (which was double the number in 2021). This agency also led the investigation into Tate:

For Dr Silvia Tabusca, a law lecturer at the Romanian-American University in Bucharest who has worked with prosecutors on trafficking cases, Tate’s big mistake was not so much that he misjudged Romania’s changing legal and social climate, but that he included a young American woman among his alleged victims.

Without pressure from the United States to investigate Tate, Dr Tabusca said, “I’m not sure Romanian prosecutors would ever have touched him.”

Ms Monica Boseff, the president of the Open Door Foundation, a private group that runs a shelter for women fleeing the sex trade, is hopeful, saying that there has been an improvement in how abuse and exploitation of women are slowly being seen by society and officials as crimes.

If all’s well that ends well, then the Tate bros will remain locked up forever.

[source:straitstimes]