Shamed socialite Marcus Sweeney appeared to throw his high-end Rolex off a balcony moments after he compared himself to the misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate in a bizarre series of TikTok videos.
The Celtic Tiger high-flyer also said he believes the former professional kickboxer, who has been detained in Romania for two months as part of a probe into human trafficking and rape allegations, is innocent. The outlandish clips appear to have been filmed from an apartment balcony in the Dublin Docklands area of the capital.
Before throwing his gold Rolex Daytona away, Marcus declared: "I hate it, it reminds me of the old Marcus. Apparently, this generation loves it. I absolutely hate it. I don’t want it. I just don’t like it. I’ll tell you why I don’t like it because all you see is that watch, you don’t see me… that is not who I am anymore."
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After throwing the watch away, he breaks into laughter and said: "You’re right my friend, I don’t like Rolex Daytonas and I don’t need materialistic things anymore." In earlier videos that were posted on Tuesday evening, Marcus said Tate was innocent and that Romanian authorities were trying to control his freedom of speech.
On February 27, it was confirmed that Tate along with his brother Tristan will remain in custody for a further 30 days after a court rejected yet another bid for freedom Tate and his brother were arrested in December by Romania’s anti-organised crime agency DIICOT as part of a probe into human trafficking, rape, and organised crime.
DIICOT said in a statement after the December arrests that it had identified six victims in the human trafficking case who were allegedly subjected to "acts of physical violence and mental coercion" and sexually exploited by members of the alleged crime group. The agency said victims were lured with pretences of love and later intimidated, placed under surveillance, and subjected to other control tactics while being coerced into engaging in pornographic acts for the financial gain of the crime group.
Two women were also nabbed as part of the probe but none of the four have been formally charged. Speaking about Tate, Marcus said: "That guy is innocent because I’ve gone through what he’s been put through which is that they’re trying to control his freedom of speech and they’re doing that by incarcerating him on a charge that is 100 per cent not true because it’s a staged show online.
"The same happened to me as in the State didn’t like what I was doing running a wealth management company and the State did not like that I was passing on information from a business level to all standards of society." He went on to encourage his viewers to "get behind" and "support" Tate for his "freedom".
Marcus also took issue with the level of security imposed on Tate at present while he is in custody. He added: "Is he going to rape a man with a semiautomatic weapon and full body armour on? No. So, that is the State using fabricated media to numb his ability to (have) free speech.
"I’ve been through it. The man is innocent. I don’t know anything about him but it’s very clear from the images you’re seeing.
"You’re a smart generation. Semiautomatic weapons for a man who’s on a podcast with a claim of rape. Why would you have a man (treated) like a terrorist for a charge like that? It’s only in the favour of one thing and that’s the State that he’s incarcerated from."
Earlier this year, a High Court judge described Marcus as being “up to his oxters” in organised crime. Mr. Justice Alexander Owens made the remark when he ruled on an application from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seeking to deem lands linked to Sweeney’s firm Evergreen Wealth Management Ltd and EWM Property Holdings Ltd were purchased using the proceeds of crime.
The judge said the bureau made out a "very compelling case" for him to rule that there was a "high degree of probability" that the site at Waynestown in Meath was acquired by EWM with crime proceeds. The court heard allegations Sweeney had business dealings with convicted heroin dealer Brian Grendon, from a major drugs gang known as The Family.
Sweeney, who was one of the country’s most high-profile socialites during the Celtic Tiger, had a relationship with Katy French, a model who died tragically from a cocaine overdose just days after her 24th birthday in December 2007.
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