Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday distanced herself from concerns raised in the public that her political party, the United National Congress, may have received financial support from embattled political leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) Jack Warner.
Warner was recently charged by the United States Department of Justice with racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering offences in relation to his tenure as a Fifa vice-president and Concacaf president.
He was finally released from the Port-of-Spain prison on Frederick Street last evening after being granted bail of $2.5 million.
In the fallout following Warner’s arrest on Wednesday, there had been public debate in many circles, including social media, about Warner being a major financier of the PP’s 2010 election campaign.
But following the official opening of the Maloney Police Station yesterday, Persad-Bissessar told reporters she received no financing from Warner.
In fact, she said, Warner may have financed his own campaign in 2010.
“As leader of the Partnership and leader of the UNC, I received no financing whatsoever from Mr Warner, either prior to the election in 2010, my party’s internal elections and thereafter,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She said she also received no financing from Warner for the Tobago elections in 2012.
“I definitely received no funding from Mr Warner, as leader of the Partnership or as leader of the United National Congress.”
Persad-Bissessar also said comparison between Warner and UNC financiers—Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson—were unjustified.
A High Court judge ruled that businessmen Galbaransingh and Ferguson should not be extradited to the United States in 2011.
The men had faced a plethora of charges arising out of alleged fraudulent activities in the Piarco International Airport Development Project fiasco.
Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh eventually ruled that any move to have Galbaransingh and Ferguson extradited would be “unjust, oppressive and unlawful.”
He quashed an October 9, 2010 decision of Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to sign the order of extradition for both men, saying that the context was that it was a local airport and local money spent, while the men were accused of defrauding T&T’s Government.
“The situations are very different,” Persad-Bissessar said.
“The process is the same, which is to say the request is made from the Government of the United States to the Government of T&T for the provision of arrest and for extradition.
“That provisionary request is then taken before a magistrate for the magistrate to have issued a local warrant for the arrest of the person and thereafter fix a date for the extradition proceedings,” she added.
She said in both cases, the extradition requests were signed by the Attorney General before the matter went to court.
“Thus far, things are proceeding along the same way but I am told in that matter (Piarco fiasco) the state attorneys had objected to bail and those persons spent months in jail before the matter was finally determined in court.
“In this case the Government did not object to bail and indeed bail was granted but I understand the problem with the bail is that the person is not so far able to provide the sureties needed,” she said.