EMORY ANDREW TATE III, THE GLAMOROUS FACE OF EVIL

Among the effects of the positive spectacularization of evil are characters who, using reality shows, the Internet and high-violence sports as a springboard, have succeeded in building a financial empire by pandering to violence, mistreatment of women, neo-Nazi and white supremacist messages. Emory Andrew Tate III is the most famous of these characters – one of the few to have global prominence and to be simultaneously active in the European neo-Nazi scene and in that close to the American Ku Klux Klan.

His story begins in the twilight of the 1980s. Emory Andrew Tate II is the first great black world chess champion. He is an idol who has no time for a family, and sends his wife, together with their sons Tristan and Andrew III, to live in Luton, a grim industrial suburb north of London. The children grow up full of anger. Emory practises kickboxing and becomes a four-time world federation (ISKA) champion[1] . After retiring from competitive activity, in 2016, Tate took part in the British edition of the TV format ‘Big Brother’, being kicked off the programme because he beat up a woman (he defends himself by claiming it was a consensual act). But the scandal makes him even more famous. He began his activity as a social influencer: he opened Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok accounts that he flooded with homophobic, racist, misogynist content.

In 2022, Tate’s career grows in connection with the growing success of Hustler University, the online platform that Tate founds and sells online courses on how to be successful and make money through investments in cryptocurrencies, dropshipping[2] and with so-called affiliate marketing[3] , which asks its members to spread the most controversial videos across the web, thereby fuelling Hustler University’s membership. Tate’s social channels capture a considerable share of the market: on TikTok his videos exceed 11.5 billion views[4] .

After being kicked off Twitter for calling on female rape victims to take responsibility, Tate is the host of InfoWars, the podcast of US neo-Nazi Alex Jones[5] and has contacts with Paul Jospeh Watson, the YouTuber of Jones and the British supremacist conspiracy galaxy[6] . Watson owes his fortune to smart stock and property investments and lucrative endorsement deals with CoverGirl cosmetics. He also owns several restaurants in London, a football team in Sheffield, launched his own brand of vodka (Pure Wonderwatson) and successfully sells the perfume ‘With Love from Paul’ and a fashion line called ‘Paul Joseph Watson Seduction’[7] .

Tate meets Donald Trump, and the two immediately like each other[8] . In June 2023, Tate opened an account on Trump’s social network, Truth Social. The first post is dedicated to Alex Jones[9] . He is in contact with Nigel Farage, the protagonist of the Brexit season, and with Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, a British far-right activist with numerous criminal records (violence, fraud, stalking) known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson)[10] . He is a childhood friend of Luton and founder of the English Defence League (2009), an Islamophobic organisation[11] . The two make contacts with Jack Posobiec (white supremacist anchorman[12] ), Mike Cernovich (macho blogger and conspiracy-monger[13] ) and Ali Alexander (fervent Trump supporter )[14][15] . In 2018, after ending up under investigation for rape, Tate left the UK, settling in Romania, to escape the pending charges[16] . It could have been the end of his career, but it is only the beginning.

Georgiana Manuela Naghel (right) and Alexandra Luana Radu (left)[17]

He moves with his brother to Romania and starts from scratch. In January 2022, the first information about their activities emerged: they earn millions by running an online dating portal. In a subsequent interview with The Mirror in March 2022, the brothers joke that their webcam business, which charges clients $4 (£3.30) per hour, is ‘a total scam’ because the models present often tell lonely men ‘fake sob stories’ to elicit sympathy and earn bigger tips[18] .

In April 2022, the US Embassy in Bucharest revealed to the local authorities that a 21-year-old US woman was allegedly being held against her will by the Tate brothers. Investigations uncover a criminal organisation dedicated to trafficking and exploiting human beings for profit: six people (one US national, one Moldovan and four Romanian[19] ) accuse the Tate brothers of abducting them, subjecting them to acts of physical and mental violence and sexually exploiting them[20] . The girls were kept segregated in a TV studio 450 metres from the Tate brothers’ villa, also on their property, located in Pipera, Voluntari, a suburb of Bucharest[21] .

They recorded everything: the content was then published on the adult-only content platform Only Fans and the video-sharing site TikTok; the brothers allegedly pocketed up to EUR 50,000 per month per girl[22] . The public announcement makes the Tate’s popularity skyrocket[23] . Their defence: in their contracts with these women, they signed a clause stating: “the broadcast is ‘for entertainment purposes only’. This means that if a model says she has a sick dog or a sick grandmother, it is not necessarily true. The second is that any money given to the models is ‘a voluntary token of gratitude for their time on the show'”[24] .

In December 2022, the Tate brothers were arrested together with two accomplices, Georgiana Manuela Naghel and Alexandra Luana Radu; on 31 March 2023, they were transferred to house arrest[25] . Radu, a former policewoman, is in charge of the girls’ dating calendar, advertising it on the main pornographic portals[26] . The Tates’ villa, near the airport runway, belongs to Talisman Enterprises Srl, owned by Naghel, who has a US passport. Emory Andrew and Tristan Tate are majority shareholders in Talisman until August 2022, when they turn it over to Naghel, who has a romantic relationship with Emory and helps administer the finances. Both she and Radu have a past as porn video actresses on the Internet[27] .

The arrest is due to yet another piece of online filth: a message to Swedish ecologist Greta Thunberg about the number, power and polluting power of her luxury cars. The environmental activist’s response was not long in coming, ironic and polemical. Tate insists by posting a few days later an image of himself with a pizza box, specifying that it is made of non-recycled paper. The label on the pizza box allows the police, who have already placed the Tates under investigation without knowing where they are, to identify the order and make the arrest[28] . The media exposure of the arrest leads to complaints in Great Britain from many women who had hitherto preferred to keep quiet[29] .

The criminal network in Romania

Mihăiţă Doroftei, together with a group of his guards, walking around Brasov[30]

In Romania, the Tate brothers became the centre of intense activity by pre-existing criminal groups. Their Royalty Sport Management Srl Brasov is a company founded in 2015 by Grigore-Sebastian Vieru, Gall Cătălin Vlad and brothers Sorin and Mihăiţă Doroftei – known as ‘Polonezu’. Royalty Sport contributes to the foundation of War Room Vegas Srl Tarlungeni – Tate’s company that officially deals with renting and subletting its own or leased properties. In 2018, the Doroftei brothers founded Noblepiagio and Avo Slots Srl Brasov, which are behind the gambling agency Las Vegas Games, which has hundreds of gambling rooms scattered all over Romania[31] .

In November 2022, following the search of several of the agency’s offices, the Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism (DIICOT) found cocaine, unregistered firearms, bladed weapons, and EUR 500,000 in cash. 28 people are arrested as part of an investigation alleging the formation of a criminal organisation dedicated to blackmail, extortion, unlawful deprivation of liberty, assaults and other violence; in addition to winnings fraud, acts of violence, threats and blackmail against competitors[32] , including customers, are reported: when a winner of large sums in one of the group’s amusement arcades claims their winnings, the operators complain of technical failures and refuse to pay, prompting internal security to intervene with threats, violence and blackmail[33] .

Talisman Enterprises Srl Tarlungeni (of the Tate brothers) participates in the profits of six casinos of the Las Vegas Games group through exclusive joint ventures with DSM Bet Live Srl, a company of the Doroftei brothers which, unlike Talisman, holds a betting operator’s licence. DSM Bet Live is one of the companies under the umbrella of the Las Vegas Games chain; these companies operate the 800 branches spread across the country through joint ventures with external companies such as Talisman. In this case, DSM provides the terminals, the Tate’s company (later passed to Naghel) the business premises and, in three cases, employees and ATM equipment.

Emory Tate began his collaboration with the Doroftei brothers by commenting on Mixed Martial Arts fights sponsored by DMS. The Doroftei are owners, together with Grigore-Sebastian Vieru, of the Real Xtreme Fighting (RXF) brand, through which they organise major martial arts events in Romania. Their acquaintance with the Doroftei allows the Tate brothers to enter a large criminal ring, involving several underworld groups in order to monopolise the gambling industry: criminal factions usually at war with each other (Sportivilor, Cordunenilor and Cămătarilor) allied under the direction of the Romanian brothers to crush the competition and increase their own and the common business tenfold[34] .

Sebastian Vieru, first from left, leader of the extreme fighting movement in Romania[35]

Prominent members of gangs across the country appear as the technicians who fix slot machines in gambling halls. The employees are actually an army of gang members, who are also in charge of hunting down jackpot winners in casinos[36] . Among the ‘slot machine technicians’ are Marian Sârbu ‘Box’, the lieutenant of Ion Balint (also known as ‘Nuțu Cămătaru’), and dozens of other names that are unknown abroad, but which make the Romanian public’s skin crawl[37] : the cream of the Romanian underworld.

Vasile Balint, the brother of Ion, known as ‘Sile Cămătaru’, in prison since 2020, is not named in the investigation[38] . Claudia Balint is Ion Balint’s wife, whom he married in prison after divorcing his then wife Lidia[39] . Ion Nuțu Balint, known as ‘Nuțulică’, is the son of Ion Balint; in February 2023, he turned himself in to the Romanian authorities after five years of absconding, having been sentenced to seven years and four months in prison for attempted murder, together with George Apostol, known as ‘Bucă’, who must serve five years and four months[40] . For a time, Constantin ‘Costel’ Corduneanu took the surname of his wife, Grațiela Bogdan, becoming Constantin Bogdan, in the hope of escaping capture. Constantin’s brothers, Gheorghe and Marian, take on their wives’ surnames, becoming Gheorghe Rusu and Marian Simion respectively[41] .

After the searches in November 2022, the magistrates issue an arrest warrant for Mihăiță Doroftei, who is meanwhile living in Poland with his family. Sorin, his brother, is placed on probation: he cannot leave Romania, must regularly report to the authorities, and cannot communicate with others accused in the case; on 23 May 2023, his ban on leaving the country is lifted[42] . In March 2023, the brothers Vasile and Marian Feraru were arrested for savagely beating up a customer of the Las Vegas casino in Bacău who wanted to enter despite being banned from playing[43] .

The investigation goes on. In December 2022, the Tate brothers are arrested: in addition to charges of sex trafficking, kidnapping and rape, investigators are looking into the possibility that the Tates have laundered the proceeds of sex trafficking into real estate in Romania. Andrew Tate publicly declares that he earns between 300,000 and 600,000 dollars a month from women held in Voluntari and forced to have sex on the internet – he even talks about this, full of pride, in one of the courses offered by his online platform Hustlers University[44] .

Andrew Tate is the director of a company called The Cannon Run Ltd., registered at his mother’s home in Luton, which organises tours in Europe and sells used sports cars; the company has received numerous county court judgments for unpaid debts. But his tendency not to pay fines is international, as he also has open accounts with the Austrian and Thai police – where, according to the British press, his father left the two boys the ownership of a hotel[45] .

Emory Andrew Tate II; chess champion, air force officer and possibly CIA agent[46]

So the investigation also extends to the activities of his father, a chess champion and sergeant major in the US Air Force. From both activities he earned enough to have a quiet middle-class life, certainly not to buy hotels abroad. The Tate boys claim that their father worked for the CIA, but there is no trace of this in official documentation – which, in itself, means nothing. Tate jr. died on 17 October 2015, in California, during a chess tournament; the autopsy established that the cause of death was a heart attack.

But that’s not all: the autopsy reports some anomalous puncture marks and bruises on the body of the deceased, compatible with those left by the ‘heart attack gun’, a gun used by the CIA, capable of silently launching a small dart of frozen poison that, once dissolved in the body, causes a serious heart attack and cannot be detected except, precisely, by the small bruise it leaves on the skin at the point of entry[47] .

These are all things that contribute to magnifying the myth of a public figure who, in order to enrich and conquer more and more space, openly focuses on evil. Glorifying it, sexualising it, practising it. The speed and availability of the net does the rest: the Tate brothers do not care about being pursued by the law, because they have money, relationships, lawyers to defend themselves and, as Donald Trump has shown, they can count on a seemingly infinite number of people who admire their wickedness.

USA024

[1] https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/who-is-andrew-tate-and-why-is-he-famous

[2] A system in which the seller is only an intermediary, and only gives the order to produce when the buyer has paid, as in the case of Amazon – https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dropshipping-instagram-ads

[3] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dropshipping-instagram-ads

[4] The Denver Gazette, 30th December 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/06/andrew-tate-violent-misogynistic-world-of-tiktok-new-star

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/05/alex-jones-punitive-damages-sandy-hook-family

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/05/antisemitism-row-ukip-accused-over-links-with-us-far-right-website-infowars

[7] https://en.mediamass.net/people/paul-joseph-watson/highest-paid.html

[8] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/06/andrew-tate-violent-misogynistic-world-of-tiktok-new-star

[9] https://www.newsweek.com/andrew-tate-truth-social-media-donald-trump-romania-1804711

[10] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tommy-robinson-court-stalking-journalist-b1906058.html

[11] https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/tommy-robinson

[12] https://www.splcenter.org/splc-investigation-far-right-oann-anchor-jack-posobiecs-rise-tied-white-supremacist-movement

[13] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/mike-cernovich-bio-who.html

[14] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/ali-alexander-accused-of-soliciting-nudes-from-teens.html