THE US Department of Justice (DOJ) statement of case against indicted former football jefe Jack Warner is now complete and is expected to be sent to Trinidad by Wednesday, a US law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation has disclosed on condition of strict anonymity.
Warner was among 14 football officials and marketing executives arrested in a sweeping US$150 million bribery scheme stretching over nearly a quarter of a century on May 27 in a dramatic US crackdown on global corruption in football.
The disgraced former FIFA vice-president and ex-president of CONCACAF, the regional governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, was charged with eight counts of financial crimes in connection with the FIFA corruption case, according to the DOJ indictment which was unsealed in the Eastern District Court in New York in May.
Warner has denied all of the US charges made against him and has promised to put up a long legal battle to US prosecutors' bid to extradite him to New York to face charges of money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering.
The US corruption case against the Independent Liberal Party leader, according to the source, relies on an evidence trail of media contracts and other documents, bank records, e-mail correspondence and the testimony of several co-conspirators who shared in the bribery spoils, including his former close pal-turned-state Confidential Witness No.1 (CW1) American Chuck Blazer, CW2 Jose Hawilla, a Brazilian sports marketing executive whose company Traffic paid Warner tens of millions of US dollars in bribes and his two sons, Daryll and Daryan Warner, who have already pleaded guilty to US corruption charges in exchange for reduced jail time.
Hawilla has also pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy, obstruction of justice and other financial crimes. Another marketing executive, Aaron Davidson, who was head of Traffic group's US division in Miami, is also expected to enter a plea in the FIFA corruption case, according to the source.
Both men are said to have provided key information about Warner's rich decades-long relationship with the global sports and marketing company and its Miami affiliate, Inter/Forever Sports.
The disgraced Traffic executives have reportedly provided US prosecutors with details of the rich media rights deals Warner is alleged to have cut with the Brazilian-headquartered marketing giant, according to the US law enforcement source.
Traffic is said to have paid some US$35 million in kickbacks to Warner and Blazer, the former general secretary of CONCACAF, who helped US agents in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) build a sprawling multi-jurisdictional corruption case against top officials in FIFA's hierarchy.
In 2011, Blazer secretly tape-recorded his colleagues for the Feds, who have quietly been working the FIFA corruption case until their dramatic swoop down on a luxury hotel in Zurich and arrests of 14 men on May 27. He is said to have provided damning evidence of Warner's involvement in several bribery schemes, including a US$10 million bribe payment made to a Warner-created dummy programme called the African Diaspora Legacy in exchange for giving South Africa the vote to host the 2010 World Cup.
He also provided details of the bribery scheme related to the sale of the Gold Cup rights, a CONCACAF tournament held every two years featuring member associations.
Inter/Forever is said to have paid substantial millions of US dollars in kickbacks to secure the television and marketing rights as well as revenue from the sale of tickets to the tournament starting with the 1996 Gold Cup and continuing for subsequent editions.
Blazer and Hawilla, according to the source, have provided documentary evidence of the parallel contracts Warner signed with Inter/Forever. Payments to Warner and Blazer were made through intermediary accounts used by the Brazilian marketing company to disguise “the source and nature” of the payments, according to the source who is familiar with the case.
One of many such transactions paid by Inter/Forever was done through a company in Uruguay to a Barclays Bank account in the Cayman Islands in the name of Sportvertising Ltd, a Blazer-owned company. In the case of this particular transaction, which was routed through a correspondent bank in New York in March of 1999, Warner's share or half of the US$200K bribe payment was wire transferred a month later from Blazer's Cayman Islands account to a private Warner account at First Citizens Bank.
Inter/Forever also used other third party intermediaries to make its bribe payments to Warner and Blazer, including a Miami law firm which handled some of its legal business, the Sunday Express was told. Other documentary evidence on which the US corruption case hangs, relates to the theft of media rights earnings from the Warner-controlled Caribbean Football Union (CFU).
US prosecutors, according to the unsealed May indictment against Warner, have gone after the former FIFA executive Committee member for several of his more infamous transactions, including the theft of US$750,000 in emergency aid intended for earthquake-ravaged Haiti in 2010. Warner is alleged to have pocketed almost all of the relief money, US$700K to be exact. As reported previously by the Sunday Express, about US$155,000 was sold in US dollar currency trades to the JTA Group and International Shipping Ltd (ISL).
The US indictment against Warner details his corrupt dealings, specifically, allegations of theft of the Centre of Excellence from CONCACAF, the US$1.2 million bribe from Qatari billionaire Mohamed bin Hammam, the cash-for bribes affair which played out at the Hyatt hotel in Port of Spain and the theft of money from the Football Federation of Australia (FFA).
Warner is expected to appear before Chief Magistrate Marcia-Ayers Ceasar on July 27 to answer the US corruption charges and request for his extradition to New York. He has protested his innocence and made clear that he is going to fight the extradition request. He has retained British QC Edward Fitzgerald to lead his defence.
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Jack's Cheques Revealed
$.7m put into Chaguanas West account.
By Anika Gumbs (Guardian).
SEVEN cheques totalling $0.7 million were deposited into the bank account of the Chaguanas West constituency by road paving contractors Lutchmeesingh's Transport and Contractors Ltd and Namalco Construction Services Ltd.
Continued Sunday Express investigations into the questionable transactions have revealed that six of the deposits were made mere months before corruption accused Jack Warner transferred $.7 million from the Chaguanas West constituency account into personal and a business bank accounts, both belonging to him.
The seventh deposit, however, was made on April 30, 2013 some nine days after Warner resigned as minister of national security in the face of a damning Sir David Simmons CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) report of allegations of multi-million-dollar financial mismanagement against him and former CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer.
Evidence of the seven deposits is shown in the following paper trail listed below:
•March 31, 2011-$50,000 (Namalco Ltd)
•August 15, 2012-$42,000 (Lutchmeesingh's Ltd)
•August 17, 2012-$100,000 (Namalco Ltd)
•October 16, 2012-$100,000 (Namalco Ltd)
•December 4, 2012-$200,000 (Namalco Ltd)
•December 29, 2012-$100,000 (Lutchmeesingh's Ltd)
•April 30, 2013-$100,000 (Lutchmeesingh's Ltd)
Lutchmeesingh's Transport and Contractors Ltd was the company that was awarded a contract in 2011 valued at $61,668,510.16 to repair the Tarouba Link Road during Warner's stint as works and infrastructure minister. And records show Namalco Construction Services Ltd was the sub-contractor alongside Brazilian firm Construtora OAS when Warner handed over a $1.5 billion cheque to the National Infrastructure Development Company as part payment for the $7.2 billion highway from Golconda to Point Fortin. Warner has not responded to telephone calls or e-mails sent by the Sunday Express seeking his comment on the deposits made by the contractors.
What Warner said
During a press conference on July 14, Warner is on record as saying that the $.7 million transferred to his private and business accounts was his personal money he used to meet the needs of Chaguanas West constituents.
The bills, Warner said, were usually higher than the funds available in the Chaguanas West bank account and, as a result, he used his private money, returning it when funds went into the constituency coffers.
Warner said: “There were times when money had to be replaced and shifted around accounts.”
He also pointed out the importance of money being repaid to his companies whenever it was used.
Warner's response followed a Sunday Express expose last week that revealed the $0.7 million being transferred from the Chaguanas West account to his personal bank account at Intercommercial Bank Ltd (IBL) and into a business account in the name of Hand to Mouth Ltd, a company in which Warner has a business interest.
Warner is the sole signatory on account #373498 at IBL.
Two cheques valued at $500,000 were made payable from the Chaguanas West constituency Republic Bank account #290457900101 to his IBL personal account one month apart on December 10, 2012 and January 10, 2013.
The third cheque, valued at $211,448.46, was made payable to Hand to Mouth Ltd, on October 26, 2012 from the Chaguanas West Republic Bank account.
Ten cheques valued at $136,900 showed that the bank account of the Chaguanas West constituency was also debited to pay salaries to Warner.
However, Warner said he did not break his vow as the Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West and accepted a salary.
Six cheques also showed that Warner took back $18,000 from the Chaguanas West constituency bank account as reimbursement for rental of the constituency office.
Contractors and contributions
It is not the first time bank records have surfaced showing deposits made to bank accounts from contractors during Warner's tenure as a government minister.
As reported previously by this newspaper, Warner, in 2010 and 2011, wrote to contractors and other business interests asking for money.
Back then, Warner, who held the mega-portfolio of Works and Infrastructure, had requested the money to pay for the ministry's Christmas dinner that was estimated to cost $1.9 million.
Bank statements had showed that more than $9.5 million was deposited into a Royal Bank business account listed in the name of JLM Quality Services Ltd, a company Warner was listed as a director up to October 31, 2007.
Among those making a donation to the event was Jusamco Pavers Ltd, which made a $200,000 deposit.
Ex-FIFA official Webb pleads not guilty to U.S. charges
Reuters By Elizabeth Barber
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jeffrey Webb, one of seven high-ranking officials of soccer's world governing body FIFA who were arrested in Switzerland on corruption charges, pleaded not guilty in U.S. federal court on Saturday.
Extradited to the United States, the former FIFA vice president and president of the CONCACAF regional soccer federation, appeared at a hearing in Brooklyn, New York. A U.S. lawyer for him declined to comment.
Webb faces U.S. charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He was released on $10 million bond, co-signed by family members and secured by properties, vehicles, personal possessions and financial assets.
No trial date was set.
The 50-year-old Cayman Islands national is among nine soccer officials and five marketing executives charged by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly exploiting the sport for their own gain through bribes of more than $150 million over 24 years.
He was one of seven soccer officials arrested in Zurich on May 27, two days before FIFA's annual congress, as authorities unveiled a case that roiled the soccer world.
U.S. authorities say their investigation, paralleling a separate Swiss inquiry, has exposed complex money laundering schemes, millions of dollars in untaxed incomes and tens of millions in offshore accounts held by FIFA officials.
Webb has been provisionally banned from his posts at FIFA and CONCACAF.
According to the indictment, Webb used his influential positions to solicit bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for the commercial rights to soccer matches.
One $500,000 bribe payment allegedly went to build a swimming pool at Webb's house in Loganville, Georgia, according to the indictment.
On July 3, Cayman Islands officials announced separate charges against Webb in an unrelated healthcare fraud case.
(Additional reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Digby Lidstone and Alan Crosby).