Claims made by controversial influencer Andrew Tate, currently in custody in the US, to hold an Estonian passport have been shown to be false, Eesti Ekspress reported.

Tate made the claim on a 2022 podcast as part of a strategy to avoid any single country’s control, but what he held at the time was e-residency, which does not confer citizenship.

Andrew Tate, 39, and his brother Tristan, 38, built a controversial social media empire and have been accused of human trafficking, rape and organised sexual exploitation in Romania and the UK. The brothers, who left Romania for Florida last year after a travel ban was lifted, deny all charges.

Tate’s connection to Estonia dates back to 2018, when he became an e‑resident. In March 2023, the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) invalidated his e‑resident digital ID card, “because supervisory proceedings found that his activities did not correspond to the purpose of e‑residency, which is to promote the development of Estonia’s economy, science, education or culture.”

The specific claim about Estonia came in a 2022 appearance on the Mars Mindset podcast, where Tate outlined a strategy of heightened visibility in as many systems as possible, with the aim of none of them being able to control him.

“The reason I kind of got this mindset is, for a while I really wanted to live off‑grid, I wanted to just be left alone, and I realized then in the modern world that’s absolutely impossible – you can’t be off‑grid if you want to live any kind of life worth living. So then I came up with the idea of, why don’t I put myself on as many grids as possible. And the goal behind that is, that no one grid controls me, so for example, I have seven passports; I have 15 drivers’ licenses. So let’s say I’m driving my car and the police stop me. I’ll just pull out a license from some random country. I’m in Romania, I’m driving a Slovakian‑plated car, I’ve got an American drivers’ license, I’ve got an Estonian passport, and I’m speaking English. You think they’re going to take my license over this? They’re just going to look at me and go ‘just slow down, bro, bye’. The paperwork’s not worth it for them,” Tate explained.

PPA spokesperson Martin Raid told Eesti Ekspress that Tate had certainly never held an Estonian passport, only an e‑residency card, which does not confer citizenship or physical residency and cannot be used as a travel document. Raid would not specify whether Tate had any activities in Estonia or what these might involve, citing data protection concerns.

Eesti Ekspress also reported in 2023 that Tate owned a string of online casinos in Eastern Europe and had claimed in interviews that he did business with a couple of “brothers, mafia guys” who owned “400 [gambling] locations from Estonia all the way down through Eastern Europe.” It is not clear what if any business interests Tate might have had in Estonia. Tate holds dual U.S.‑U.K. citizenship.

U.S. legal research site Court Listener on August 10 issued documentation showing the U.S. government denying a bail request from Tate and his brother; the U.K. has issued an extradition request for both men and asked the U.S. to keep them in custody.

The brothers face 59 charges in the UK including rape and sex trafficking, and have been held in Florida since their arrest last month. British prosecutors are urging a US court to deny bail, arguing the brothers are a flight risk and would intimidate witnesses.

Tate has built his brand on misogyny, teaching that women are inferior and that men must dominate them — a message critics say has fueled the spread of toxic masculinity and the radicalization of young men. Among his supporters are figures reportedly close to U.S. President Donald Trump.

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