Wiretaps suggest Tate brothers used offshore account to hide webcam profits as new allegations emerge involving minors

Documents obtained as part of a new case against social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who have been charged with human trafficking, money laundering and organized crime, are raising questions about their opaque webcam finances.

On August 21, Romanian police raided the homes of the brothers and several of their accomplices and arrested the pair. The latest charges list 35 victims and accuse Andrew Tate of trafficking a minor for sexual exploitation and having sexual relations with another minor.

The brothers are also accused of intimidating and corrupting witnesses to prevent them from testifying to prosecutors or to pressure them to give false testimony. Two other accomplices are also accused of interfering with the investigation. Prosecutors have seized 16 cars and a motorcycle from the Tates, a news release said.

The day after the raid, a judge placed Tristan Tate on bail and Andrew Tate on house arrest pending further pre-trial hearings. The same judge also warned that the evidence of money laundering was insufficient in the prosecution’s case, local media reported. A spokesman for DIICOT, the Romanian law enforcement unit dedicated to investigating organized crime, declined to comment.

The Tate brothers and two of their associates are currently awaiting trial on separate human trafficking charges set for 2023. In that case, Andrew Tate was also charged with rape.

The brothers and their alleged accomplices have denied wrongdoing in both cases. A spokesman for the Tates declined to comment for this article.

EVERY ACCUSATION AGAINST ME IS A LIE.

EVERYONE IS PRODUCED.

ENOUGH OF THE CORRUPTION. photo.twitter.com/3nlGxDJHbV

— Andrew Tate (@Cobratate) August 22, 2024

ICIJ and Romanian partner Context previously reported on Tristan Tate’s account at Paxum, a Canadian company that focused on the adult entertainment industry and was later acquired by Paxum Bank, a small Caribbean financial institution. The companies shared the Paxum name and similar website branding. The mother of Paxum Bank owner Anton Postolnikov was also one of the owners of Paxum Inc, according to Romanian media.

Using Tristan Tate’s leaked bank records, ICIJ found that an adult webcam platform deposited a total of $2.6 million into Tate’s Paxum account shortly before he and his brother were charged with human trafficking. Andrew was also charged with raping one of the women he allegedly trafficked.

As part of the latest investigation, prosecutors obtained transcripts of text messages and phone calls that shed light on the couple’s use of their Paxum account in what they say was a complex online webcam business that operated since at least 2015. Due to strict anonymity rules, ICIJ was unable to determine whether the women named in the prosecutors’ transcripts were among the 35 victims in the new round of allegations.

According to the transcripts, Andrew Tate texted his brother on Oct. 23, 2019, asking about a “missing payment. Paxum? The Oct. 15 payment.” Tristan Tate responded, “It could be a large payment. There’s a double payment coming.” (ICIJ translated the relevant exchanges from the transcripts from Romanian to English, based on prosecutors’ own translation of the Tates’ original English conversation. ICIJ’s translation may not exactly match the original conversation, which was not presented in court.)

That same day — in an exchange found elsewhere in the wiretap transcripts — Tristan told his brother that one of the women who worked for them “asked to see what was in the bank account. It all went through Paxum at once. 15,000 went in from all three girls,” he added, without specifying the currency.

We open accounts at all banks. We spread the money.

— Andrew Tate in wiretap transcripts

An ICIJ investigation of Tristan Tate’s Paxum account statements shows that multiple payments were made from webcam platform MFCXY to the Paxum account in the weeks leading up to the call. Three payments of $5,180.95, $9,634.20 and $5,407 were made on October 1, 2019, followed by a single payment of $7,034.15 on October 21, 2019.

On November 11 of that same year, Andrew asked Tristan, according to a transcript, “Did the video camera money arrive? Paxum? Did it arrive at Paxum a few days ago? How much was the video camera money?” A payment of $18,785.15 from MFCXY was deposited into Tristan Tate’s account on November 4, 2019, the leaked files show.

The wiretap transcripts released by the Attorney General’s Office, along with account activity reviewed by ICIJ, suggest that Tristan Tate may have used the Paxum account to collect webcam revenue from multiple women in his employ. The transcripts appear to show that the brothers agreed to keep a portion of the revenue the women earned in Tate’s webcam business.

When Tristan complains that one of the women is demanding 40% of her webcam show earnings, Andrew tells him to either “shoot her” or “falsify” their crypto holdings’ bank statements, or “give her 30% and tell her it’s 40%, blame it on the exchange rate” – implying that the women didn’t have access to the bank account where their own earnings were being sent.

According to other evidence presented by prosecutors in court and obtained by ICIJ partner Context, the Tate brothers offered online lessons to their followers on how to make money with OnlyFans — an online subscription website for adult entertainment — including social media marketing strategies and convincing men to subscribe to paid adult content. The owner of OnlyFans also owns MFCXY Inc., the company that initiated the money transfers to Tristan Tate’s Paxum account. The company did not respond to ICIJ’s request for comment in May.

Prior to the May article, Paxum Bank denied any irregularities and sent a letter through a lawyer warning that publication of confidential bank information could lead to legal action against ICIJ.

On September 4, a Paxum spokesperson issued a new statement.

“Despite what you allegedly believe to be fact, Paxum Bank never opened or maintained accounts for any of the Tate brothers. Perhaps you and others are confusing the bank with an unrelated entity called Paxum Inc., a Canadian company with different ownership and unrelated management, which is no longer in business.”

ICIJ found multiple transfers from Tate’s accounts that flowed into his other accounts at banks in Europe, including Santander and Raiffeisen, marked with Paxum Bank’s Dominica address, as well as the “customer name” of “paxumbank ltd” on the transfer document. Tate’s account statements show Paxum Bank’s Dominica address, rather than the Canadian address of the now-defunct Paxum Inc.

Paxum Bank said in a later statement that after the bank purchased the assets of Paxum Inc. in late 2022, its IT system automatically generated a change from Paxum Inc. to Paxum Bank in previous electronic records. This meant that transactions executed by Paxum Inc. incorrectly appeared to have been executed by Paxum Bank.

The wiretap transcripts also show conversations between the brothers about opening multiple bank accounts and keeping relatively low balances, ostensibly to avoid the attention of compliance departments — a tactic sometimes used by people seeking to evade anti-money laundering checks at banks. “We open accounts at all the banks. We spread the money out,” Andrew said, according to the transcripts. “We keep the balances low. We can buy another house. We don’t need big balances in bank accounts.”

Andrew says that in one case he ignored a request from a bank to update his personal details, and the account was still open despite this.

“Following the rules never works,” Andrew told Tristan, according to the transcript.