Andrew Tate en route to Romania to meet legal obligations pending trafficking probe

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Online influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan left the United States for Romania on a private flight on Friday to fulfil legal obligations related to a criminal investigation against them, they said.

The brothers are under investigation in Romania on accusations of forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. They have denied all wrongdoing.

"Spending $185,000 on a private jet across the Atlantic to sign one single piece of paper in Romania," Tate posted on social media platform X. "Innocent men don't run. They clear their name in court."

As part of preventative judicial control measures pending the investigation, the Tates are required to regularly check in with police. Their next check-in is due on March 24.

Their return from Florida comes three weeks after Romanian prosecutors lifted a travel ban against them.

A U.S. source familiar with the matter acknowledged that Washington had pressed Bucharest to give the brothers, who have dual U.S. and British citizenship, their passports and allow them to travel.

Andrew Tate's media team said they would arrive at their home near the Romanian capital Bucharest at around 2300 GMT.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said on March 4 his office had opened a criminal investigation against the brothers, a move welcomed by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, which represents one of Tate's alleged victims, a Florida resident.

Tate said on X at the time that the brothers had returned to Miami to see family and been insulted by the opening of the investigation. "We have no criminal record and expected a hero's welcome after being unfairly abused abroad," he posted.

On Thursday, UltraViolet, a national women-led gender-justice organization put up "Unwanted" posters across Miami, demanding that the Tates be extradited. 

An initial criminal case against Tate and his brother failed in December when a Bucharest court decided not to start the trial and sent the files back to prosecutors, citing flaws in the indictment.

A British arrest warrant has also been issued for the Tates and they will be extradited after Romanian trial proceedings are completed. The allegations in Britain - denied by them - relate to sexual aggression between 2012 and 2015.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Alison Williams)