Former Independent Liberal Party (ILP) member, councillor Faaiq Mohammed is moving quickly to recover an outstanding debt from his former political leader Jack Warner ahead of Warner’s case with US authorities.
Mohammed said yesterday, he had started a defamation lawsuit against Warner in 2013 after Warner made defamatory remarks against him. Judgement was given in his favour in July, 2014 for $220,000 as compensation.
Justice Vasheist Kokaram held that the allegation made by Warner was “out-of-place, irresponsible and unsubstantiated.”
Warner had claimed that Mohammed accepted a bribe after he voted for a United National Congress (UNC) candidate for the post of presiding officer during the first meeting of the Chaguanas Borough Corporation, almost a month after the local government elections in October 2013.
Mohammed said since the court ruling he had made several efforts to secure payment and for Warner without success.
“My lawyers have written to his lawyers and to him in his personal capacity on several occasions demanding payment. I have therefore been left with no choice but to issue bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Warner on the ground that he failed to or is unable to discharge his legal obligations to me as ordered by the High Court. This is clearly evident by his continuous refusal to pay the monies to me.”
“Having regard to Mr Warner’s recent indictment in the United States and given the magnitude and spiral web of the alleged bribery and corruption in which Mr Warner is alleged to have played a pivotal role, I fear that the United States Department of Justice and the FBI may take certain steps in relation to his assets that may prevent me from ever recovering the monies owed to me.”
Warner was arrested on a provisional warrant last Wednesday after the US Government unsealed an indictment charging him and 13 other football officials, with racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud, linked to his tenure as a former Fifa vice president. He has been released on $2.5 m bail after spending a night in jail.
Mohammed said he had instructed my lawyers to institute proceedings to recover my monies and demand that Warner pays the debt.
“I am sure Mr Warner will not want to be declared bankrupt. If he is so declared it should be noted that he will be disqualified from standing for elections as he is prohibited under the Constitution from offering himself as a candidate in the next general elections. “
Mohammed said he now stands “vindicated in the decision I took to leave and resign from the ILP and withdraw my political allegiance in favour of the UNC as the issues now cast a shadow of doubt and have brought a dark cloud of suspicion over Mr Warner’s head.”