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| Welcome to ICIJ’s weekly newsletter! The legal troubles of social media provocateur Andrew Tate and his younger brother, Tristan Tate, deepened last month when Romanian police raided their home as part of a new case linked to their controversial adult webcam business. The Tate brothers, both former kickboxers-turned-influencers, now face fresh charges of human trafficking, money laundering and organized crime. Andrew Tate is also accused of trafficking a minor for sexual exploitation and having sexual relations with another. The brothers were already awaiting trial in Romania on separate human trafficking charges. Earlier this year, ICIJ reported that an adult webcam platform paid $2.6 million into Tristan Tate’s account with Paxum, a Canadian company later purchased by Paxum Bank, a small Caribbean financial institution. The payments ended in August 2022, four months before his arrest. Image: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images Now, wiretap transcripts obtained by prosecutors in the new case, along with ICIJ’s previous reporting, suggest that Tristan Tate may have been using the Paxum account to collect webcam income from multiple women in his employ. For its part, Paxum Bank told ICIJ it had never “opened or maintained accounts for either of the Tate brothers.” The transcripts also reveal additional details about the brothers’ alleged exploitation and plans to open multiple bank accounts, possibly to dodge anti-money laundering checks. “Following the rules never works,” Andrew Tate said, according to the transcripts. Read more here. MET SAGA CONTINUES The Metropolitan Museum of Art expelled an attorney for the Cambodian government from a meeting with museum officials, heightening tensions in a years long campaign to press the museum to return Khmer treasures to their home country. The attorney, Brad Gordon, had been one of the most prominent faces of Cambodia’s national effort to trace lost artifacts. “I have never felt so humiliated in my life,” he said. ‘GREEN LABELS’ DON’T CUT IT Voluntary certifications used by companies to tout their green credentials are not fully in line with a new European Union law banning the trade of goods linked to forest destruction, a new study found. For decades, businesses have used so-called green labels to market products as sustainable, but the study identified gaps in several schemes meant to detect environmental harm and human rights violations. Thanks for reading! Joanna Robin ICIJ’s digital editor P.S. If you’ve enjoyed our coverage, remember to tell your friends and family and share our work on social media. Send them an email now! |
ICIJ: Andrew Tate – Media provocateuer and his younger brother, Tristan Tate. These are kickboxers-turned-influencers “…Who now face fresh charges of human trafficking, money laundering and organized crime…”
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Who Watches the Watchers? 