Tweet
Warner's financial dealings under scrutiny in Miami today.
By - Lasana Liburd (T&T Express).
United National Congress (UNC) Chairman and Federation of InternationalFootball Associations (FIFA) vice-president Austin Jack Warner’s financial dealings as a senior member of football’s world governing body comes under scrutiny today at the Eighth Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, SouthBeach, Miami, USA.
Andrew Jennings, an award winning British investigative journalist and filmmaker, is the closing speaker at the conference and will deliver a one-hour presentation entitled ’Corruption in Soccer’ from 4.15 p.m. (Miami time).
Warner stands accused of fraud, among other things, and a CONCACAF cheque used to pay a Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) bill will be among the slides displayed by Jennings. The controversial cheque was first highlighted in an Express story on March 18, 2008, when the ’Soca Warriors’, the senior national soccer team, was paid part of its earnings for the 2006 World Cup through a CONCACAF account. Warner and T&TFF president Oliver Camps both denied knowledge of the payment although the Express received and still has a copy of the cheque.
’CONCACAF has nothing to do with the Soca Warriors (football team),’ Jennings told the Express yesterday.
’Americans may not be very interested in soccer but they are certainly interested in financial crime and American authorities would be disturbed to know Warner was using funds from an American bank in CONCACAF’s name to make such payments. It would appear to be improper use of CONCACAF funds.’
Jennings, who alleged that the cheque could be construed as evidence of corporate fraud, insisted that the more explosive revelations be kept private until after his presentation today. He did divulge that he draw parallels between FIFA and organised crime while paying particular attention to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer and Warner, who is also CONCACAF president.
Last Friday, Warner claimed that Jennings was a discredited journalist and a tool of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).
Jennings countered that the only time he worked on a Trinidad and Tobago story with obvious political links was an investigative piece by TV6 reporter Sasha Mohammed on ex-UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart that rocked the ruling party. Mohammed confirmed that Jennings was her ’mentor’ during construction of the Hart story.
Other speakers during the three-day conference include Charlie Rawl, a former financial adviser to Allen Stanford who blew the whistle on the billion-dollar fraud of the Antigua-based tycoon.
Jennings insisted the timing of the conference was set months in advance and had nothing to do with the general election.
’This conference is run every year and Trinidad is not on radar. No one here cares about the Trinidad elections. What they care about is offshore, insurance and corporate fraud,’ he said.
By - Lasana Liburd (T&T Express).
United National Congress (UNC) Chairman and Federation of InternationalFootball Associations (FIFA) vice-president Austin Jack Warner’s financial dealings as a senior member of football’s world governing body comes under scrutiny today at the Eighth Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, SouthBeach, Miami, USA.
Andrew Jennings, an award winning British investigative journalist and filmmaker, is the closing speaker at the conference and will deliver a one-hour presentation entitled ’Corruption in Soccer’ from 4.15 p.m. (Miami time).
Warner stands accused of fraud, among other things, and a CONCACAF cheque used to pay a Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) bill will be among the slides displayed by Jennings. The controversial cheque was first highlighted in an Express story on March 18, 2008, when the ’Soca Warriors’, the senior national soccer team, was paid part of its earnings for the 2006 World Cup through a CONCACAF account. Warner and T&TFF president Oliver Camps both denied knowledge of the payment although the Express received and still has a copy of the cheque.
’CONCACAF has nothing to do with the Soca Warriors (football team),’ Jennings told the Express yesterday.
’Americans may not be very interested in soccer but they are certainly interested in financial crime and American authorities would be disturbed to know Warner was using funds from an American bank in CONCACAF’s name to make such payments. It would appear to be improper use of CONCACAF funds.’
Jennings, who alleged that the cheque could be construed as evidence of corporate fraud, insisted that the more explosive revelations be kept private until after his presentation today. He did divulge that he draw parallels between FIFA and organised crime while paying particular attention to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer and Warner, who is also CONCACAF president.
Last Friday, Warner claimed that Jennings was a discredited journalist and a tool of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).
Jennings countered that the only time he worked on a Trinidad and Tobago story with obvious political links was an investigative piece by TV6 reporter Sasha Mohammed on ex-UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart that rocked the ruling party. Mohammed confirmed that Jennings was her ’mentor’ during construction of the Hart story.
Other speakers during the three-day conference include Charlie Rawl, a former financial adviser to Allen Stanford who blew the whistle on the billion-dollar fraud of the Antigua-based tycoon.
Jennings insisted the timing of the conference was set months in advance and had nothing to do with the general election.
’This conference is run every year and Trinidad is not on radar. No one here cares about the Trinidad elections. What they care about is offshore, insurance and corporate fraud,’ he said.
Comment