Andrew Tate: From kickboxer to alleged pimp – New Yorker reveals details
An investigation in The New Yorker based on Romanian court documents traces Andrew Tate's rise from destitute athlete to incel influencer.
Romanian court documents shed light on Tate's criminal beginnings
As the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports, the magazine The New Yorker has published a detailed investigation into Andrew Tate based on Romanian court documents – the kickboxer who became an incel influencer and alleged pimp.
The story begins in 2014. Tate regularly wins titles in kickboxing, but is largely destitute. He shares a barely furnished flat with his brother Tristan, his only significant capital being relationships with women in various cities whom he had met on competition trips.
From this starting point, he develops a business model: he pressures the women to offer pornographic livestreams and share the earnings with him. He starts the operation with three women in a studio in England. Business runs well enough that he gives up kickboxing and becomes a pimp full-time. With the proceeds, he buys himself an Aston Martin.
Among the affected women, according to the court documents, is one whom Tate had met in Slovakia – at a time when she was 15 years old and was still a minor at the beginning of the operation.
The New Yorker's investigation simultaneously places the case in a broader media context: without social media and its algorithmic dynamics, the conclusion goes, Tate would simply have remained a serious criminal without reach – a finding that raises questions about the responsibility of platforms.
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung