AS A FULLER PICTURE of the “career” of Austin “Jack” Warner seems to emerge from both the United States (US) Justice Department’s indictment and parallel revelations now bursting like fireworks all over, I am reminded of The Godfather movies, one and two.
Something about the consequences of dragging the children into the family business.
I haven’t had the time to fully read the indictment and yet more revelations are coming out, with the news that the FBI is now investigating the selection of Russia to host the 2018 football World Cup, and possibly Brazil in 2014.
No point rehashing all the revelations from the past ten days. I am losing the stomach for it.
What kind of person do you have to be to flourish in an institution which, although set up to ensure a fair deal for every country in soccer, allegedly just sticks a “For Sale” sign on the door? Where the business at hand is reportedly the business of selling your vote for awarding major tournaments, including the World Cup, to the highest bidder?
And, on top of that, allegedly selling the broadcast time, access, positions in the organisation itself, tickets to matches, travel packages to tournaments, and on and on, in a similar manner.
And then, after you have allegedly pulled in all that ill-gotten loot, having to find creative ways to dispose of it, a practice the authorities call, well, money laundering? Now we hear that Republic Bank is investigating the circumstances under which it was allegedly used to launder money.
A director of Scotiabank has resigned in Trinidad after his family’s supermarket and other businesses were identified as another money laundering channel.
The US$10 million alleged bribe, which has been refuted by South Africa, was paid by FIFA and deducted from what FIFA paid to South Africa to prepare for the 2014 World Cup. Authorities alleged the money was wired in three tranches totalling $10 million, says the indictment, “from a FIFA account in Switzerland to a Bank of America corresponding account in New York for credit to accounts held in the names of CFU and CONCACAF but controlled by the defendant Jack Warner, at Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Continues the indictment: “Soon after receiving these wire transfers, the defendant Jack Warner caused a substantial portion of the funds to be diverted to his personal use.
For example, on 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, toward a personal loan account held in his name.”
There’s more. The indictment stated: “The defendant Jack Warner . . . caused approximately $1.4 million of the $10 million to be transferred to Individual #1, a Trinidadian businessman whose identity is known to the grand jury, and Trinidadian Company A, a larger supermarket chain in Trinidad and Tobago controlled by Individual #1.
Weeks later, cheques totalling approximately the same 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 in a bank account held in the name of Warner and a family member at First Citizens Bank in Trinidad and Tobago.”
When it came to allegedly paying off Chuck Blazer his promised portion of the South African football “development” funds, money was allegedly wired from Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago to a Bank of America corresponding account in New York, for credit to an account controlled by Co-conspirator #1, allegedly Blazer, at a bank in the Cayman Islands.
The indictment stated that a second payment was made by cheque drawn on a Republic Bank account and deposited by Blazer into his Merrill Lynch brokerage account New York. A third payment, for $250 000, was made by a Republic Bank cheque but this time, the indictment stated, it was hand-delivered to Blazer by someone travelling to New York.
According to the indictment, “A representative of FirstCaribbean International bank in the Bahamas” flew to New York to collect the cheque and then flew back to the Bahamas and deposited the cheque into Blazer’s account. Blazer allegedly got, from these three payments, three-quarters of a million dollars, although Warner had allegedly promised him a million.
Besides Republic Bank announcing an internal investigation, the never-ending FIFA revelations have led to the resignation from the board of directors of Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago of Christopher Mack. Unlike here in Barbados, Scotia is over 50 per cent locally-held in Trinidad and Mack is the managing director of family business, JT Allum and Co. Ltd, owner of the JTA Supermarkets chain in central and south Trinidad.
According to the Trinidad Express, “Sources identified the supermarket chain [involved in Mr Warner’s alleged money laundering] as JTA Supermarkets and the affiliated company mentioned in the US-issued indictment against Warner as JT Allum and Co. Ltd.”
The newspaper added that “owner and director of the JTA Group Carl Mack last week confirmed there were “some foreign currency purchases” Warner by the company’s accountant.
As I close, let me note that no charges have been filed against any of the banks mentioned, nor the supermarket chain or its parent group, by the US authorities, nor has any wrong-doing on their part been alleged anywhere.
