LONDON - Showing off his muscles, cigars and fast cars, influencer Andrew Tate's videos on social media have captured the attention of millions of teenage boys.
But the 37-year-old US-born Briton is also accused of human trafficking in Romania, and police said Tuesday that he was taken into custody on UK sex offence charges.
This legal trouble follows a growing notoriety built on sexist and sometimes violent maxims, including Tate saying that women cannot be independent and placing blame on victims of rape or assaulted.
The former kickboxing champion's controversial output has made him one of the world's best-known influencers, and a self-proclaimed multi-millionaire with a fleet of fast cars and properties.
Yet Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been awaiting trial in Romania on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal group to sexually exploit women.
The men had been out of custody but were arrested Monday evening at their home near Bucharest on the UK case.
Lawyers for four British women who accuse Tate of rape and serious physical and sexual assaults said the UK warrant followed their warnings to police that he planned to flee Romania.
Tate's spokesperson said the UK charges date back to 2012-2015 and that the brothers deny all the accusations against them.
Throughout most of his legal woes, he has been posting on X (formerly Twitter), where he currently has almost nine million followers.
"The Matrix is afraid, but I only fear God," his handle, "Cobratate", posted Tuesday.
Online rise
Tate was born in the United States in 1986 and has US citizenship, according to his website.
But after his parents separated, he grew up with his mother and brother in Luton, north of London. He has lived in Romania for several years.
Before his rise to fame on social media, Tate was a professional kickboxer who gained the title of world champion.
He first came to wider attention by appearing as a contestant on Britain's "Big Brother" reality show in 2016. But he was quickly ejected after a video emerged showing him hitting a woman.
He then turned his focus to building his online presence, founding the so-called Hustler's University, initially on the social media platform Discord.
It promises customers paying at least the $50 joining fee "hands-on tutorials, dedicated millionaire mentors, a supportive community".
He also runs an online platform called "Tate's war room" -- charging nearly $8,000 to access -- which promises "to free the modern man from socially induced incarceration".
The Tate brothers claim they were once "broke" but are now "self-made multi-millionaires".
Tate has become increasingly prominent in the mainstream media, going viral in December 2022 after aggressively challenging climate change activist Greta Thunberg online.
"Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions", he wrote to her, posting a photo of him filling a Bugatti with petrol.
Thunberg's crushing reply referencing his "smalldickenergy" was retweeted over 570,000 times in the immediate aftermath.
De-platformed
In August 2022, he was banned from social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, for misogynist messages.
His previous Twitter account was allowed back, however, after Elon Musk bought the company and renamed it X.
His attitudes towards women have proved increasingly controversial as his mainstream profile has grown.
Many adults have only learned of his outsized influence on young men in recent years -- in Britain in part when teachers started sounding the alarm.
In 2022, the words "Andrew Tate" were among the most searched on Google.
"There's no such thing as an independent female", Tate said in one podcast.
He also said: "I'm a realist and when you're a realist, you're sexist".
Tate describes how he would hit a woman who accused him of cheating on her and says that women who are assaulted or raped are to blame.
Following his 2022 arrest, his messages on X began to take on a different tone, quoting Nelson Mandela and the Koran.
Having declared himself an atheist, he claims to have converted to Islam, wishing his followers a blessed Ramadan two days ago.
His X account's posts have also become increasingly political and centred around far-right talking points.
"Europe is done. Western Europe is 0% European anywhere," stated a message last week.
"White girls get raped and murdered by migrants every day and the news won't show it." - AFP