There has been no request by the US authorities for the extradition of anyone else from T&T besides Jack Warner, such as the Trinidadian supermarket chain businessman named in US court documents as “individual one” and who was alleged to be the person to whom Warner transferred US$1.4 million in 2008.
Attorney General Garvin Nicholas confirmed the situation yesterday following queries about the businessman described in the court documents as someone who also “controlled a real estate and investment company in T&T.”
Cheques totalling approximately the same $1.4 million amount and drawn on an account held in the name of Trinidadian Company B, a real estate and investment company also controlled by Individual 1, were deposited into a bank account held in the name of Warner and a family member at First Citizens Bank in T&T, according to the US court document.
The document stated that “individual one” and the companies the person controlled in T&T were known to the US grand jury.
Nicholas said T&T had issued a lot of information but would not detail aspects.
The 166-page court document concerns the US’ case against “The Fifa 14”, football world defendants, on whom US authorities moved on Wednesday. The document lists Warner as the fifth person in the case.
The document was filed in the US (Eastern) District Court of New York since May 20 but was unsealed on Wednesday, the same day US authorities, who arrived in T&T recently, began an application with T&T’s Central Authority for Warner’s extradition. Nicholas said the US had 60 days in which to do that.
The US case alleges that certain people and entities employed by and associated with Fifa, including the 14 defendants, used their positions within the enterprise to engage “in schemes involving the solicitation, offer, acceptance, payment and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, bribes, and kickbacks... the defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted the enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering, in pursuit of personal and commercial gain... to further their corrupt ends, the defendants and their co-conspirators provided one another with mutual aid and protection.”
The eight charges Warner has been indicted on pertain to various specific alleged issues in his football executive career.
The charges include racketeering, bribery, conspiring to devise a scheme to defraud the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) and obtain money/property by false/fraudulent pretences, money laundering by conspiring to transport, transmit/transfer funds from places in the US to places outside and wire fraud conspiracy and schemeing to defraud Fifa, Concacaf and the CFU.
The comprehensive document details the enterprise of Fifa, continental federations, regional federations and national associations, sports marketing companies, the defendants, co-conspirators, conspirators’ corruption of the enterprise and an overview of the racketeering conspiracy which allegedly occurred.
Other segments deal with scandal and resignations of Warner and another official, continued corruption of Fifa and obstruction of justice.
Another category deals with alleged criminal schemes concerning various football games in certain locations, including CFU World Cup qualifier “schemes”, the 2010 World Cup vote “scheme” and 2011 Fifa presidential election “schemes”.
The document describes Warner as a T&T citizen and “between approximately 1993 and 2013, a legal permanent resident of the US.”
Contents mapped Warner’s operation in Fifa, including dealing with several of 25 co-conspirators listed in the document. Among them, for instance, the document stated that at various times, co-conspirator 14, “a relative of Warner,” was a businessman involved in, among things, a number of soccer-related ventures. It was alleged that Warner established and controlled in T&T and elsewhere, numerous bank accounts and corporate entities in which he mingled his personal assets and those of Concacaf, CFU and T&T Football Federation.”
BUSINESSMAN KNOWN BUT NOT CRITICAL TO CASE
In the issue concerning the Trinidadian businessman, the document claimed that in/about 2004, Fifa’s executive committee considered bids from Morocco, South Africa and Egypt, as well as other nations that withdrew before the vote to host the 2010 World Cup. The document alleged that “previously, Warner and his family had cultivated ties with South African soccer officials in connection with and subsequent to a failed bid by South Africa to host the 2006 World Cup.
It alleged that “in early 2000s, co-conspirator 14, a member of Warner’s family, had used Warner’s South African contacts to organise friendly matches for Concacaf teams to play in South Africa.
It claimed at one point Warner also directed co-conspirator 14 to fly to Paris, France and accept a briefcase containing bundles of US currency in $10,000 stacks in a hotel room from co-conspirator 15 a high-ranking South Africa bid committee official.
It claimed “hours after arriving in Paris, co-conspirator 14 boarded a return flight and carried the briefcase back to T&T where they provided it to Warner.”
It also claimed that in the months before the selection of the host nation for the 2010 World Cup, scheduled to be done in May 2004, Warner and co-conspirator one travelled to Morocco, as they had done in 1992 in advance of the voting for the 1998 World Cup host.
While in Morocco during the 2004 trip, it alleged that a representative of the Moroccan bid committee offered to pay $1 million to Warner in exchange for his agreement to cast his secret ballot on the Fifa executive committee for Morocco to host the 2010 World Cup.“Subsequently co-conspirator one learned from Warner that high Fifa officials, the South African Government and the South Africa bid committee, including co-conspirator 16, were prepared to arrange for the SA Government to pay $10 million to CFU to “support the African diaspora.”
The document alleged: “Co-conspirator one understood the offer to be in exchange for the agreement of Warner, conspirator one and also 17 to all vote for South Africa rather than Morocco to host the 2010 World Cup.
Warner indicated that he had accepted the offer and to co-conspirator one that he would give a $1 million portion of the $10 million payment to co-conspirator one.”
In Fifa’s committee vote on May 15, 2004, South Africa was selected over Morocco and Egypt to host the 2010 match.
Warner, co conspirator one and 17 indicated they voted for South Africa. In the months and years after the vote co-conspirator oner periodically asked Warner about the status of the $10 million payment.
“On January 2, 2008, January 31, 2008 and March 7, 2008, a high-ranking Fifa official caused payments of $616,000, $1.6 million and $7.7 million, totalling $10 million, to be wired from a Fifa account in Switzerland to a Bank of America account in New York for credit to the accounts held in the names of CFU and Concacaf, but controlled by Warner at Republic Bank in T&T,” the document alleged. “Soon after receiving these wire transfers, Warner caused a substantial portion of the funds to be diverted for his personal use.
“January 9, 2008, Warner directed Republic Bank officials to apply $200,000 of the $616,000 that had been transferred into a CFU account from Fifa one week earlier towards a personal loan account held in his name.”
The document alleged Warner also diverted a portion of the funds into his personal accounts by “laundering the funds through intermediaries.”
It added: “During the period from January 16, 2008 to March 27, 2008, Warner caused approximately $1.4 million of the $10 million to be transferred to Individual one, a Trinidadian businessman whose identity is known to the grand jury and Trinidadian Company A, a large supermarket chain in T&T controlled by individual one.
“Weeks later, cheques totalling approximately the same amount and drawn on an account held in the name of Trinidadian Company B, real estate and investment company also controlled by individual one, were deposited into a bank account held in the name of Warner and a family member at First Citizens Bank in T&T.”
The document stated the identities of Trinidadian Company A and Trinidadian Company B are known to the (US) grand jury.
It alleged that during the three years following Warner’s receipt of the $10 million from Fifa, he made three payments to co-conspirator one ,totalling over $750,000 in partial payment of the $1 million that Warner had earlier promised that person as part of the bribe scheme.
The first payment, $$298,500, made by wire transfer, went on/about December 19 2008 from an account held in the name of CFU at Republic Bank, T&T, to a Bank of America correspondent account in NY for credit to an account controlled by co-conspirator one at a Cayman Islands bank.
The second payment, $205,000, was made by cheque drawn on an account held in the name of CFU at Republic Bank, T&T. It is alleged that on/about September 27, 2010, co-conspirator one caused the cheque to be deposited into his Merrill Lynch brokerage account in NY. “Approximately one month earlier, on or about August 23, 2010, Warner sent an email to co-conspirator one to advise him that the payment was forthcoming.”
The third payment, $250,000, was made by cheque drawn in CFU’s name at Republic Bank, T&T. The cheque was delivered to co-conspirator one by another individual who travelled by airplane from T&T to JFK in NY and then to Concacaf’s head office in NY, where he delivered the cheque to co-conspirator one.
It was claimed that approximately two months earlier, March 13, 2011, Warner sent an email to co-conspirator one to advise him that another payment was forthcoming but the document stated that co-conspirator one “never received the balance of the promised $1 million payment...”