Vanuatu looks into revoking Andrew Tate's golden passport
Vanuatu authorities are looking at revoking Andrew Tate's citizenship after it was revealed that he acquired a golden passport at around the same time as his 2022 arrest in Romania for rape and human trafficking.
The self-described misogynist influencer acquired citizenship under a fast-track scheme for those who invest at least $130,000 (£96,000) in the tiny Pacific archipelago, according to an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
The scheme has raised security concerns, and led the European Union to revoke Vanuatu's visa-free privilege in late 2024.
A Vanuatu government spokesman said authorities were "definitely looking into" Tate's citizenship.
"Once we have the files, definitely, the processes will be in place to revoke his citizenship," Kiery Manassah told ABC News.
"The government does not want to encourage people of questionable backgrounds to be granted citizenship," he added. "Those who are wanted by their countries or who are investigated by police authorities from overseas are not welcome to be part of the citizens of Vanuatu."
Passports-for-sale or citizenship by investment schemes are a source of income for countries like Vanuatu. But they have also been abused by organised crime suspects, oligarchs and even intelligence agents, said Aubrey Belford, Pacific lead editor at OCCRP.
"It's caused a lot of alarm because it's one of those loopholes that allows people to get a new passport or even a new identity and be able to evade law enforcement," Belford told ABC News.
Vanuatu granted Tate citizenship in December 2022. That same month, Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania and have since largely been under travel restrictions in the country.
Vanuatu does not have a formal extradition treaty with Romania.
It is unclear if Tristan Tate also acquired Vanuatu citizenship.
Andrew Tate: The self-proclaimed misogynist
'Tate raped and strangled us' - women talk to BBC
Andrew Tate: We are innocent until proven guilty
In recent years, Andrew Tate has built a massive online presence, including more than 10 million followers on X, sharing his lifestyle of fast cars, private jets and yachts.
He has also gained global notoriety for his views towards women, proudly proclaiming himself a "misogynist" and also using extreme language relating to acts of violence against women.
He has also been singled out for the effect he has had in spreading misogyny online among boys and young men by authorities in the UK.
The Tate brothers were both born in the US but moved to Luton in the UK with their mother after their parents divorced.
They have denied allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
Separately, the UK is seeking their extradition from Romania after they were charged in 2024 of rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.
Lawyers for the brothers have said that they will return to the UK to face those charges, that stemmed from allegation between 2012 and 2015.
A Romanian court has ruled that the brothers could be extradited to the UK following the end of any trial there.
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17 minutes ago
- Politico
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New executive chairman of US-backed aid for Gaza hits back at criticism
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According to Moore, "some" deaths in one of the incidents did "come from the IDF" although he also blamed "some" of the deaths on Hamas. At least 57 people were killed and nearly 300 injured, health officials said, between Sunday and Tuesday's shootings, leading GHF to pause its distribution for 24 hours. When asked if GHF's aid plan was part of the problem, given that desperate, hungry people had been killed on their way to pick up food, Moore answered, "No, I think that's a quite cynical point of view." "I fundamentally disagree with the premise that our operation is somehow disproportionately imperiling people," he said. According to Moore, GHF -- since it was set up 10 days ago -- had distributed "10 million meals to Gazans, to thousands and thousands and thousands of people." The population of Gaza is around 2.2 million. Addressing the two incidents, Moore said, "Somehow people veered off the secure corridor," and referred to the deaths as "a tragedy." In the wake of such deadly incidents, GHF has since closed its distribution centers. Moore said his organization was "working with others" to make such incidents "less likely to happen" in the future. "I'm not doing this for anybody to die," GHF's executive chairman said. Moore pushed back on the implication that the new aid plan, which was set up at the behest of Israel to counter the alleged looting of aid by Hamas, had been mismanaged. Moore confirmed that Gazans arriving at the aid distribution points didn't need to show any form of ID to get access to aid. When asked by ABC News how he could be sure that Hamas would not profit from aid distributed under his plan, he said there was "no evidence" any of their aid had been seized. The GHF executive said his organization was "very much solving the problem" and, over time, GHF would "put more energy on verification." International aid agencies have refused to participate in GHF's aid distribution operation, stating that it breaches fundamental humanitarian principles, such as the notion that aid should always be distributed at the point of need. The GHF operation has been accused by multiple U.N. organizations of forcing people to have to travel long distances through a perilous war zone to reach the distribution points, which are located in tightly restricted areas. The most vulnerable people in Gaza would appear to be the least likely to be able to access the aid. Moore rejected that premise and said, "over time" he believed they would be able to get aid to the most vulnerable people. International aid agencies have also accused GHF's aid distribution operation of being part of Israel's military strategy, which Moore said was "simply not true." "Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism," United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday. "This militarized system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned," Turk's statement continued. Moore said GHF was communicating with the IDF to "manage" the "secure corridors," but he described GHF as an "American organization" with "American contractors." When asked if Israel was funding the organization, at least to some extent, he refused to comment. "There's certain things that we're not gonna talk about or focus on now," Moore told ABC News. GHF has been mired in controversy from the beginning, and it lost Executive Director Jake Wood, a U.S. military veteran, who resigned just before the aid plan launched nearly two weeks ago. Wood cited concerns over the group's impartiality. In an interview days before his resignation, Wood had suggested on CNN that GHF would only be able to scale up its operation to the necessary level to cater for Gaza's population if major aid agencies were to join the operation, something they have all refused to do. As a new executive, Moore said he believed they could scale up the operation to the necessary degree, but said it was not their goal to do it without the cooperation of major aid agencies. "I mean, they're the ones who have said that they won't work with us," he added. "My message to them [international aid agencies] is like, stop criticizing us, just join us, and we can learn from them if people have better idea." As of Thursday, the aid sites were shut down and then briefly re-opened and then closed again at two sites in Rafah, Gaza, GHF said.
