JACK CHEQUES IN
One month before the May 2010 general election, a company owned by former FIFA vice-president and Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner paid Ross Advertising five cheques totalling $1,719, 215.75.
Ross is the advertising agency which handled the People's Partnership's 2010 election campaign.
On April 14, 2010, Jamad Ltd, whose address is 113 Edward Street, Port of Spain, wrote a cheque to Ross Advertising for $1 million.
On April 21, 2010, four other cheques of varying sums—$195,220.55, $155,250, $97,750 and $270,995.20 were also made out to Ross Advertising.
The cheques, which show Jamad's home bank as Republic Bank, Tragarete Road, were all deposited on April 21 at Republic's Long Circular Mall branch.
The cheques surfaced without explanation on social media yesterday, after they were allegedly leaked by Warner, with the promise of “more to come”. They also appear in the Sunshine newspaper.
What the cheques don't state is what service Ross Advertising, owned by Ernie Ross, rendered for the People's Partnership as no invoices were attached.
Given Ross's relationship in handling the Partnership's election campaign, do the cheques represent money which Warner pumped into the campaign?
Last Thursday, after he was released from prison, Warner stated at a political meeting that he intends to go after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and reveal all through a tape which he will give to four lawyers.
“Everything I have against Kamla I will bring it out. I have kept it back too long and I will bring it out,” Warner had said.
PM responds
The question was again put to the Prime Minister yesterday.
Last week, Persad-Bissessar said she never received any money from Warner to fund either her own or the United National Congress (UNC) election campaigns.
In a brief telephone call yesterday, she insisted: “I, Kamla, received no money from Jack Warner. That is the God's truth. I cannot speak to any contractual arrangement the gentleman would have had with Ross Advertising or any other advertising agency.”
She did point out that as a candidate for Chaguanas West in the 2010 election, Warner funded his own campaign.
For his part, Ross would only say: “There is no comment. It's a non-story. I have no other comment.”
Copies to Lynch
Leader of Government Business Roodal Moonilal said he intends to forward copies of the cheques in circulation to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Last week Lynch announced that Warner was included in a 47-count indictment that was unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charging 14 defendants with “racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies, among other offences, in connection with the defendants' participation in a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.”
“I have taken note of cheques circulating reporting to be a cheque by Mr Warner. His name is not on it so I assume that it's a company that he is affiliated to and made out to Ross Advertising and I just want to be clear that Mr Ross Advertising is free to conduct business with Mr Warner of with the many companies that Mr Warner is involved in,” said Moonilal.
“I am making a copy of that cheque and sending it personally to the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch. I am sure she'll not only be interested in where the cheque went to but where the source of funds came from and I am asking Mr Warner to make more evidence available to Loretta Lynch who has a big interest in those matters,” he said.
“Mr Warner's problem is not Kamla, its Loretta. I think the sooner he wakes up to that reality the better for him,” he said.
“The statement made by the Prime Minister stands unimpeachable. The Prime Minister herself has not received any money from Mr Warner, or the UNC. Ross Advertising works for several businesses and business persons. He is free as part of his commercial relationship to work with any client at any time,” he said.
Warner mum
Meanwhile, Warner is keeping the reasons for releasing the cheques close to his chest.
At least until tonight at 7:30 when his party hosts a political meeting.
In a text message response to the Express, Warner said yesterday: “No comment at this time. 7.30 p.m. tomorrow.”
RELATED NEWS
Warner’s sons aided US.
T&T Express.
A son of a former FIFA executive secretly agreed in 2013 to cooperate with United States authorities and admit to participating in a World Cup ticket-reselling scheme, according to a court transcript released on Monday.
The transcript confirmed that Daryan Warner, like his brother Daryll, had agreed to assist US authorities as part of separate plea deals. The transcript, ordered released by a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, contained Daryan Warner's guilty plea.
Both men are sons of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who was among 14 individuals indicted for engaging in a corruption scheme at FIFA that authorities said involved more than $150 million (£98.6 million in bribes.
The transcript showed that in Daryan Warner's cooperation deal, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with fraud and money laundering in connection with aiding and abetting an alleged bribe payment by the South African Bid Committee connected to its bid to host the 2010 World Cup.
That agreement signalled a potential area of testimony by him should the larger case against the 14 go to trial, as prosecutors allege that Jack Warner solicited payments worth $10 million from the South African government. He denies wrongdoing.
Benjamin Brafman, Daryan Warner's lawyer, declined to comment on Monday.
In unveiling the charges against the 14 last Wednesday, US authorities disclosed that four people and two corporate entities had secretly pleaded guilty but declined to confirm they were cooperating.
Transcripts subsequently released for the two Warner brothers' pleas have since confirmed they are cooperating.
Daryan's cooperation was first reported by Reuters in 2013. A July 2013 plea transcript obtained on Wednesday confirmed that Daryll Warner, a former FIFA development officer, was also cooperating.
Daryan Warner pleaded guilty in October 2013 to wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and the structuring of financial transactions to evade bank reporting requirements.
At the hearing, Daryan Warner admitted that he agreed with others to buy tickets to the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and resell them at a “substantial profit.”
Daryan Warner said he bought the tickets directly from FIFA in 2006, misleading it about the role of an unnamed individual because he “believed that FIFA would not have sold them to me had he been involved.”
Charging documents say that FIFA became aware he resold the tickets and that he believed he would not be able to buy them in 2010.
Nevertheless, Warner said he bought tickets from others to mislead FIFA. Charging documents describe those individuals as two unnamed family members who then were FIFA officials.
Documents confirm $10-million payment to FIFA official
By Geoffrey York - he Globe and Mail
New documents have confirmed the explosive U.S. allegation that the South African government directed $10-million (U.S.) to bribery suspect Jack Warner, vice-president of the global soccer body FIFA, after winning the rights to the 2010 World Cup.
But nearly a week after the $10-million payment was first alleged in a U.S. indictment, even as newly leaked letters and statements confirm the transaction, the South African government still hasn’t explained the unusual payment to Mr. Warner for the “Africa diaspora” in the Caribbean.
Instead the South African sports minister has issued vague denials of any wrongdoing and complained that the allegations are a plot to tarnish the country’s reputation and perpetuate “negative stereotypes” about Africans. The minister, Fikile Mbalula, told South Africans that they should trust their “fellow countrymen” rather than “the Americans.”
A letter in 2008 from the president of the South African Football Association, Molefi Oliphant, tells FIFA that the government has decided to create a “Diaspora Legacy Programme” and that it should receive $10-million in FIFA funds that were previously intended to support South Africa’s costs in hosting the World Cup. The payment led to a $10-million reduction in FIFA’s support for the World Cup’s operational budget.
The letter, which was leaked to the British media on Tuesday, specifies twice that the “legacy programme” must be “administered and implemented directly” by Mr. Warner, who would be the “fiduciary” of the fund.
A South African newspaper had earlier asked Mr. Oliphant about the letter, but he refused to comment and asked how the newspaper had managed to obtain a copy of the letter.
A separate statement by FIFA on Tuesday confirmed the $10-million payment to Mr. Warner. It said the payment was approved in 2007 by the South African government “to support the African diaspora in Caribbean countries as part of the World Cup legacy.”
Journalists have sought to find any record of this “Diaspora Legacy Programme” but there seems to be no mention of it in any South African government announcements in 2007 or 2008. Nor has there been any explanation of how the $10-million payment would benefit the Caribbean, where incomes are generally higher than those of most South Africans.
An interview in 2011 with former president Thabo Mbeki has now surfaced, in which Mr. Mbeki says that “funds” were “made available” for Trinidad and Tobago – the home country of Mr. Warner – “to develop soccer in the Caribbean as part of the African diaspora.” He does not mention the $10-million amount or the source of the money.
According to the U.S. indictment, FIFA transferred the $10-million in three tranches to bank accounts in New York controlled by Mr. Warner in the name of the Caribbean football union and the larger regional association for North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The indictment says the $10-million payment had been corruptly and secretly promised by South African officials during their campaigning for the World Cup, which they were awarded in 2004. It says Mr. Warner and his associates soon pocketed much of the $10-million in 2008 by laundering it through other transactions.
Danny Jordaan, the head of South Africa’s bid committees and later the head of its World Cup organizing committee, confirmed the $10-million payment in an interview with a South African newspaper on Sunday, but he insisted that it wasn’t a bribe because it took place “years after” the country had won its bid in 2004.
However, the U.S. indictment says the bribe was promised by South African officials before they won the bid and the money was then paid after the decision.
The 2008 letter from South Africa authorizing the $10-million payment was addressed specifically to Jerome Valcke, the FIFA secretary general, the organization’s second-in-command behind its controversial president, Joseph “Sepp” Blatter. This is the closest that the bribery scandal has come to touching Mr. Blatter directly so far.