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Flashback: September 2008*—Then FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, left, speaks with FIFA president Sepp Blatter, right, and honorary president João Havelange at the Ministry of Sport office on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain during a courtesy call. The high-ranking officials were in Trinidad for the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) centennial celebrations. —Photo: DEXTER PHILIPLucky Warner
A very lucky Jack: Part VII of a Special Investigation
By Camini Marajh: Head Investigative Desk
Story Created: Apr 27, 2013 at 10:55 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 27, 2013 at 11:52 PM ECT
How lucky can a Jack get?
Well, if the Jack in question has the last name Warner, stupendously lucky.
Not only does he get cash gifts of $60 million from party financiers, he gets debt forgiveness on a US$6 million Centre of Excellence (CoE) construction loan; another US$20 million worth of investments in the CoE from the world football governing body, FIFA; maintenance money for his CoE acquisition of US$50,000 a month from Concacaf, the body which represents football federations from North and Central America and the Caribbean of which he was president; and miscellaneous cash gifts from Australia and other countries bidding to secure lucrative and prestigious World Cup hosting gains.
And while United National Congress (UNC) party financier Krishna Lalla contends that the $60 million was a loan to be repaid and the Sir David Simmons-led Concacaf Integrity Committee has made findings of criminal fraud in relation to some of the big ticket CoE items, Warner has remained resolute in his claim that they were cash gifts meant for his personal benefit.
Warner has presented conflicting accounts of the circumstances surrounding these so-called CoE gifts, last Thursday pulling private correspondence he refused to share with the Simmons enquiry out of his political hat at a public meeting with adoring Chaguanas West constituents as proof that former FIFA president Joao Havelange had gifted the CoE to him and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), of which he was president.
There are several problems with Warner’s various and conflicting accounts.
In the case of the UNC party financier, he initially branded him a liar, telling his then political leader Basdeo Panday that he never received any money from Lalla.
As reported previously in this series, Warner recanted his story when Lalla filed a lawsuit to get back his money. The new version, Warner told Panday, was that the cash gift was $30 million and not $60 million. Lalla had sued for recovery of the cheque payments only, which was about $30 million.
Another major hurdle in the Warner credibility chart is his Havelange story.
The private letters he produced as proof of a gift do not specifically match the interpretation he has placed on it. Further, legal experts counter that even if Havelange did in fact give the CoE at Macoya as a gift to Warner, he did not have the authority to give away a corporate asset.
Legal experts say Havelange cannot give away an asset that is not his to give and the absence of FIFA board minutes and other documents tell its own story about Warner’s claim of the fabulously-expensive real estate gift.
The Simmons Report also detailed a slew of fraudulent Warner dealings in relation to the CoE.
As reported in the April 17 installment of this series, Warner and his accountant-in-chief Kenny Rampersad had listed the CoE, named after Havelange, as a freehold asset on the balance sheet of the region’s ruling football body.
The Express series raised questions about the Rampersad-audited Concacaf financial statements and the apparent material misrepresentation of an asset described as freehold property to which Warner held legal title.
The Rampersad-audited accounts showed the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence as an asset on the books of Concacaf from inception in the late 90s right up to 2010. The Simmons report found that far from being an accounting oversight, it was intent to deceive.
Investigations by this newspaper show, however, that it was a deception known to Zurich.
FIFA insiders say Sepp Blatter, Warner’s former close pal and the man he fraudulently helped elect as FIFA president in a bid-rigging scheme more than a decade ago, knew about the CoE scam.
FIFA board minutes show that Blatter defended Warner’s many financial improprieties and ran interference to requests for censure from some FIFA Executive Committee (ExCo) members.
As reported in the April 17 installment, the CoE was not only listed as an asset on the books of Concacaf, it was billing the Confederation for use of its facilities. It was very clearly stated in black and white that Concacaf derived no income from its freehold property in Trinidad and instead was paying hundreds of thousands of US dollars to Warner for use of the sprawling sporting complex paid for with FIFA money.
The financial statements in which Rampersad played both a bookkeeper and auditor role, showed a one-way money flow to Warner.
And as with almost everything else in the halcyon Warner-Blatter days, no questions were asked and no explanations provided.
Warner described Blatter as a great leader. Blatter called him: “A wonderful and loyal friend”. From all accounts, it was a mutually-rewarding relationship, the two men made very rich deals and, up until early 2011, they had each other’s back.
Blatter gave a US$1 million gift to Concacaf to spend as it chose. Persons familiar with the situation say the money went to Warner. And as Warner himself would admit in the wake of the 2011 tsunami break-up between the former football allies, Blatter provided many gifts over the years, including to “all members” of the Caribbean football bodies.
He said gift giving was a part of FIFA’s culture. It was in the FIFA DNA.
In a startling statement carried in a live international broadcast on Sportsmax and local TV stations, Warner, on Thursday night, admitted his role in a 1998 vote-rigging scheme to ensure Blatter’s victory in FIFA’s presidential race.
In a public admission of fraud, Warner told how Vincy Jalal, the girlfriend of Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaica Football Federation, cast a proxy vote for Haiti and shouted “oui” during the roll-call of delegates.
He said Blatter won the FIFA presidency on the strength of his (Warner’s) vote-scheming.
Persons with knowledge of the situation told a more sinister tale of the then Haiti Football Association president, Dr Jean-Marie Kyss, being detained in Haiti on the instruction of the then Secretary of Sport at a time of political turmoil.
Kyss’ passport was seized but he got out desperate calls to Warner and former general secretary of Concacaf, Chuck Blazer, briefing them on the situation and his inability to make the scheduled Paris Congress.
And while FIFA’s rules do not permit proxy voting, Warner, a former Blatter general, told the huge meeting of party supporters on Thursday that Blatter was one of the “most hated” football officials” at the time and were it not for Concacaf’s support, he would “never have seen the light of day as FIFA president”.
He said: “With Blatter’s permission, I got Captain Burrell’s girlfriend to vote as the Haitian delegate by saying ‘oui!’ when Haiti’s name was called. In 1998 therefore, I had delivered and since then I emerged the second highest sporting personality in FIFA.”
Warner did not say whether his No. 2 standing in the Blatter-run House of FIFA was connected to the 1998 vote-rigging scheme, but he was clear that the two had much in common and a mutual admiration for each other.
His change of loyalty to a wealthy Qatari by the name of Mohamed bin Hammam created a tectonic shift on the FIFA playing field.
New alliances were formed, old friendships came undone and tsunami threats were being unleashed in the full glare of rolling TV cameras. The former football allies had come to the end game, each desperately fighting to score, each waiting to offload their own truck-load of dirty secrets.
—In Wednesday’s Express, some of those secrets are revealed.