BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in Romania on Tuesday ruled that prosecutors’ indictment against influencer Andrew Tate contains multiple irregularities and gave them less than a week to amend or withdraw the case of alleged human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
The ruling by the Bucharest Court of Appeal is a major setback for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, which must act within five days.
The appeals court also ordered that some evidence be removed. Its decision comes nearly two years after Tate, 37, and his brother Tristan Tate, 36, were arrested along with two Romanian women near the capital.
Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year. In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled that a trial could start but did not set a date.
All four deny all of the allegations.
“This is a monumental victory for our clients, who have maintained their innocence from the beginning,” said Eugen Vidineac, one of the brothers’ lawyers. “The court’s decision to exclude key evidence and demand rectification of the indictment demonstrates the lack of substantiated claims against them."
There was no immediate statement by prosecutors.
The appeals court ruled it identified multiple flaws in the prosecutors’ case file against the Tates, saying prosecutors had failed to adequately explain the charges against Andrew to one alleged female victim, and that the charges against the female suspects were not properly presented. It said the indictment failed to specify the amounts related to the confiscation of assets in the case.
The court ordered some evidence removed including witness statements by two alleged victims and witness statements made by Andrew and Tristan, which were deemed inadmissible. The court did not say why.
After the ruling, Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer and dual British-U.S. citizen who has amassed over 10 million followers on the social media platform X, said: “The prosecution knew they were lies. We knew they were lies."
In August, DIICOT launched a second case against the Tate brothers investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. They have denied all of the charges. Tuesday's ruling doesn't affect this case.
In March, the Tate brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015.
The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
FILE - Andrew Tate poses giving a thumbs up upon arriving with his brother Tristan, right, at the Court of Appeals building in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading on Tuesday after clawing back losses from earlier in the morning.
The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, after erasing an early drop of 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 204 points, or 0.5%, while the Nasdaq composite flipped a loss to turn 0.3% higher.
Stocks were doing worse in Europe, where France’s CAC 40 index fell 1% and Germany’s DAX lost 1.1% after Russia said Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles at it. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putinformally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons.
Worries about the escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war sent investors into U.S. Treasury bonds, which are seen as some of the world’s safest investments. The rise in their prices in turn lowered their yields, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.37% from 4.41% late Monday.
Gold also rose 0.5% and recovered some of the losses it sustained following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, as investors herded into places traditionally considered safer during times of trouble.
Such cautiousness had overshadowed optimism coming from reports by big U.S. retailers showing fatter profits for the summer than analysts expected.
Walmart climbed 4.2% after topping forecasts for both profit and revenue. The nation’s biggest retailer said it saw broad-based strength across its categories, including sales made both online and in stores. It also said it served more upper-income households, while raising its forecasts for sales and profit for the full year.
Lowe’s likewise delivered bigger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but its stock nevertheless dropped 3.4%. A report in the morning said construction crews broke ground on fewer new homes last month than economists expected, and rival Home Depot slipped 0.6%.
Other big companies set to report their latest quarterly results this week include Nvidia and Target on Wednesday and Deere on Thursday.
Nvidia, with a total market value of roughly $3.5 trillion, will need to hit analysts’ high expectations for growth during the latest quarter to justify its big stock price, which has surged more than 190% this year amid Wall Street’s frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. The chip company's profit report may be the highlight for the U.S. stock market this week, and its 2.9% rise on Tuesday was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500.
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Super Micro Computer jumped 30.5% after it filed a plan to keep its stock listed on Nasdaq's exchange. It also said it hired an independent auditor, which can help it file financial statements needed in order to comply with Nasdaq’s listing requirements.
The company’s stock has been on a wild ride. It more than quadrupled in the first two and a half months of this year because the company makes servers used in AI. But it gave up all that and more, with losses accelerating after Ernst & Young resigned as its public accounting firm. A special committee of the company’s board later said that a three-month investigation found “no evidence of fraud or misconduct on the part of management or the Board of Directors.”
Berry Global Group rose 3.7% after Amcor said it would buy the maker of prescription vials, bags and other products in an all-stock deal. Amcor slipped 0.3%.
Incyte tumbled 11.1% after the biopharmaceutical company said it’s pausing enrollment in its ongoing study of a potential treatment for hives in chronic spontaneous urticaria. It also said data from another study evaluating a potential treatment for cholestatic pruritus does not support further development.
In stock markets abroad, indexes in Asia were more stable than in Europe. They rose 0.7% in Shanghai and 0.4% in Hong Kong, rebounding from early losses.
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
FILE - The morning sun shines on Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
FILE - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 5, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)
Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader reacts near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
