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Fraud All Around
Fraud inside, fraud outside
By Camini Marajh: Head Investigative Desk
Story Updated: Apr 20, 2013 at 10:31 PM ECT
Part IV of a Special Investigation by Camini Marajh (Head Investigative Desk)
In Trinidad and Tobago, Jack Warner’s self-appointment as the de facto boss of a middleman company used as a conduit to siphon out more than $100 million in public and private sector funds to a slew of privately-owned corporations is called a sweetheart deal. Almost everywhere else in the world it’s called fraud or misappropriation of public funds.
Sunday Express investigations into the long laundry list of corruption allegations made against ex-world football powerhouse and National Security Minister Warner found a web of self-dealing tied to a family business empire of more than 50 private corporations, vast property holdings, unaccounted-for political cash donations, evidence of procurement fraud and a slew of parallel bank accounts for all of the football entities with which he was associated.
Even in the face of compelling documentary evidence produced by the Sir David Simmons Concacaf Integrity Committee probe, a defiant Warner on Friday maintained his “I have done nothing wrong” defence to rubbish the 144-page Simmons-presented case of fraud made out against him and his former pal and general secretary of football’s ruling body for North and Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), Chuck Blazer.
Warner, who has raised eyebrows with his unapologetically blunt talk, has refused to answer specific questions put to him by this reporter and on April 6 made public a list of 40 questions sent to him on a wide variety of issues, ranging from the circumstances leading to a suitcase full of cash in his official Government office to where tens of millions in 2006 World Cup sponsorship funds have disappeared to.
He complained that the only thing the Sunday Express didn’t ask about was his “grandmother’s knickers”.
The sharply-divisive figure has amassed a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars comprising in large part of other people’s money, according to investigations conducted by this newspaper.
Warner, who has taken unlawful advantage of football and political opportunities to enrich his family empire, has beneficial and other interests in more than 20 businesses but has declared interest in only 12, according to his 2011 Integrity in Public Life filing.
His accounting of sources of income to the Integrity Commission of Trinidad and Tobago omits significant fees and other substantial sums from a slew of football bodies, including FIFA (football’s world governing body), Concacaf, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), LOC Germany 2006 Ltd, and the Football Federation of Australia (FFA).
The Simmons case against Warner talks of a US$462,000 FFA grant paid to Warner in support of a Concacaf upgrade of the Marvin Lee Stadium at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in Macoya, which Warner and his accountant-in-chief Kenny Rampersad fraudulently listed as an asset on the Confederation’s balance sheet.
The money which was intended for Concacaf’s coffers was never accounted for in the Confederation’s books.
According to the Simmons report, the money was paid into a Warner-controlled account at Republic Bank which also contained private funds. He also omitted to include in his Integrity Commission (IC) filing shares held in the Teachers’ Credit Union valued at just over $600,000.
Responding to the Ria Taitt expose published in this newspaper, Warner said it was never his intention to deceive the IC and blamed the reporting omission on his accountant.
The Minister of National Security also failed to account to the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) for substantial payments he received from disgraced football colleague Mohamed bin Hammam, UNC (United National Congress) financier Krishna Lalla and tens of millions of dollars derived from his controversial acquisition of World Cup broadcast rights for the Caribbean region.
A 2011 auditor’s report into the financial management of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) found that the ex-AFC president, bin Hammam, made a US$250,000 cash payment to Warner in 2008.
Bin Hammam and Warner would pay the ultimate price in 2011 for their betrayal of football czar and FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who spared no effort in going after his former top lieutenants for the Port of Spain-arranged cash-for-vote affair intended to seal bin Hammam’s bid for the presidency of the corruption-plagued world governing body.
In the case of Lalla, Warner borrowed $60 million in 2007 for the purported financing of the UNC’s election campaign in the November poll of that year.
Lalla told the Sunday Express he provided cash and cheque payments totalling $60 million over several months to Warner who assured that the money would be repaid from a US$10 million cheque payment he was expecting from FIFA.
Lalla told a tale of cash withdrawals of hundreds of thousands of dollars and of the Warner cash pick-ups at his Pt Lisas office in Couva.
Wads of hundred dollar bills, tightly packed in plain brown envelopes were picked up by Warner or his driver, according to Lalla, who has been linked to controversial construction works at the homes of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and defeated People’s Partnership candidate Ashworth Jack.
Lalla, who said he was naïve and believed Warner to be “a man of means”, said he provided $32 million in cash payments and another $28 million in cheque payments to Warner.
He said Warner at first claimed to be “busy, busy” with the election campaign and assured that he would have his lawyers draw up a mortgage charge in his favour for the now disputed Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence.
Cheque payments totaling $27.6 million were made to an entity called Centre of Excellence/Indoor Facility and another $1 million was paid to Jamad Ltd, the private Warner corporation which turned up as a beneficiary of substantial multi-million dollar payments from the national football federation and LOC Germany 2006, a Warner/Kenny Rampersad-created company.
Former prime m inister and founder of the UNC Basdeo Panday said he raised the issue of Lalla’s money with Warner following a complaint from the UNC financier.
He said Warner initially denied he got the $60 million and told Panday to “doh worry with him, he is a liar”.
Panday said when Lalla filed a pre-action protocol letter, Warner’s story changed.
“He came to an executive meeting of which I was chairman and he said in front of the entire executive that Krishna Lalla did not give him $60 million. He gave him $30 million as a loan not for him to pay back.
“So I asked him surely that was not a gift, that was for the party and will you account for it? Will you give an account for how you spent $30 million and that’s when the roof caved in and Jack decided he was going to get rid of me,” said Panday, adding that Warner later sued him for libel when he said publicly that he took money on behalf of the party and would not account for it.
He said Warner later withdrew the libel action and was ordered to pay $25,000 in costs, which he is yet to pay.
In his statement of defence in the Lalla lawsuit, Warner said the money was a gift. But it was a Warner interpreted gift that was never declared to the BIR.
Commenting on Minister Roodal Moonilal’s defence of Warner that the alleged acts of corruption were invalid because they predated his December 2007 political career, Panday said: “So there is a time for thieving and there is a time for not?”
The Lalla cheques to the two Warner entities were deposited in the main at First Citizens, Queen’s Park East and Republic Bank, Tragarete Road, Port of Spain.
The Centre of Excellence/Indoor Facility Warner used as a front for the Lalla payments is not a registered entity and is unrelated to the partnership known as C.O.N.C.A.C.A.F Centre of Excellence, which later changed its name to the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence—a mirror company to the Bahamian-registered real Concacaf.
Sunday Express investigations found that Warner created a slew of parallel bank accounts in the names of football bodies he was associated with and diverted funds intended for those bodies into secret accounts controlled by him.
The Simmons report spoke of a Centre of Excellence bank account which was in receipt of huge sums of Concacaf money for which the Simmons Integrity Committee was unable to get any information about from First Citizens.
First Citizens was also the bank which facilitated two unauthorised mortgages to Warner. In both cases, the Concacaf signatories used by Warner were not corporate officers and had no authority to commit the Confederation to borrowings of almost US$8 million.
The board resolution cited in the 2007 bank charge was also called into question by Sir David Simmons.
What exactly did First Citizens, a state-owned bank, rely on in giving Warner a near US$8 million credit facility given the Simmons revelation that the signatories on record were not authorised corporate officers?
The bank’s corporate secretary Sharon Christopher confined her remarks to the general vetting practice and bank-customer confidentiality.
“The bank, in carrying out any transaction, seeks the appropriate legal advisers, number one and secondly, the bank is not in a position to comment on client information because we are bound by the rules of client confidentiality.”
Pressed on the issue of whether the bank was rigorous in checking the bona fides of the individuals who signed the mortgage documents, she said: “In issuing a bank charge the board uses legal advisers to assist them in the transactions and everything is done in accordance with the law. That is our position.”
The bank’s former chief executive officer and now Cabinet colleague of Minister Warner, Larry Howai, who is abroad, said he is yet to see the Simmons report, but noted: “The bank would ensure that the sources of funds were properly verified and its attorneys would have vetted any advances to the borrower so I’m not sure what the basis of the allegation is.”
And while First Citizens has taken cover behind what would ordinarily obtain, Simmons was clear on Friday that the bank failed to ensure that the signatories to the near US$8 million loan, Lisle Austin and Harold Taylor, had the requisite authority to sign on behalf of Concacaf.
The Sunday Express found more parallel bank accounts held in the name of TTFF at First Citizens and Republic Bank, Long Circular Branch.
As reported in last Sunday Express, the Federation’s top executives told a case management conference (CMC) they had knowledge of only three official bank accounts.
This newspaper found no less than 13, four of which were off the company’s books.
• More on this in Part V which continues in the Express on Tuesday.
Fraud inside, fraud outside
By Camini Marajh: Head Investigative Desk
Story Updated: Apr 20, 2013 at 10:31 PM ECT
Part IV of a Special Investigation by Camini Marajh (Head Investigative Desk)
In Trinidad and Tobago, Jack Warner’s self-appointment as the de facto boss of a middleman company used as a conduit to siphon out more than $100 million in public and private sector funds to a slew of privately-owned corporations is called a sweetheart deal. Almost everywhere else in the world it’s called fraud or misappropriation of public funds.
Sunday Express investigations into the long laundry list of corruption allegations made against ex-world football powerhouse and National Security Minister Warner found a web of self-dealing tied to a family business empire of more than 50 private corporations, vast property holdings, unaccounted-for political cash donations, evidence of procurement fraud and a slew of parallel bank accounts for all of the football entities with which he was associated.
Even in the face of compelling documentary evidence produced by the Sir David Simmons Concacaf Integrity Committee probe, a defiant Warner on Friday maintained his “I have done nothing wrong” defence to rubbish the 144-page Simmons-presented case of fraud made out against him and his former pal and general secretary of football’s ruling body for North and Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), Chuck Blazer.
Warner, who has raised eyebrows with his unapologetically blunt talk, has refused to answer specific questions put to him by this reporter and on April 6 made public a list of 40 questions sent to him on a wide variety of issues, ranging from the circumstances leading to a suitcase full of cash in his official Government office to where tens of millions in 2006 World Cup sponsorship funds have disappeared to.
He complained that the only thing the Sunday Express didn’t ask about was his “grandmother’s knickers”.
The sharply-divisive figure has amassed a personal fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars comprising in large part of other people’s money, according to investigations conducted by this newspaper.
Warner, who has taken unlawful advantage of football and political opportunities to enrich his family empire, has beneficial and other interests in more than 20 businesses but has declared interest in only 12, according to his 2011 Integrity in Public Life filing.
His accounting of sources of income to the Integrity Commission of Trinidad and Tobago omits significant fees and other substantial sums from a slew of football bodies, including FIFA (football’s world governing body), Concacaf, the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), LOC Germany 2006 Ltd, and the Football Federation of Australia (FFA).
The Simmons case against Warner talks of a US$462,000 FFA grant paid to Warner in support of a Concacaf upgrade of the Marvin Lee Stadium at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in Macoya, which Warner and his accountant-in-chief Kenny Rampersad fraudulently listed as an asset on the Confederation’s balance sheet.
The money which was intended for Concacaf’s coffers was never accounted for in the Confederation’s books.
According to the Simmons report, the money was paid into a Warner-controlled account at Republic Bank which also contained private funds. He also omitted to include in his Integrity Commission (IC) filing shares held in the Teachers’ Credit Union valued at just over $600,000.
Responding to the Ria Taitt expose published in this newspaper, Warner said it was never his intention to deceive the IC and blamed the reporting omission on his accountant.
The Minister of National Security also failed to account to the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) for substantial payments he received from disgraced football colleague Mohamed bin Hammam, UNC (United National Congress) financier Krishna Lalla and tens of millions of dollars derived from his controversial acquisition of World Cup broadcast rights for the Caribbean region.
A 2011 auditor’s report into the financial management of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) found that the ex-AFC president, bin Hammam, made a US$250,000 cash payment to Warner in 2008.
Bin Hammam and Warner would pay the ultimate price in 2011 for their betrayal of football czar and FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, who spared no effort in going after his former top lieutenants for the Port of Spain-arranged cash-for-vote affair intended to seal bin Hammam’s bid for the presidency of the corruption-plagued world governing body.
In the case of Lalla, Warner borrowed $60 million in 2007 for the purported financing of the UNC’s election campaign in the November poll of that year.
Lalla told the Sunday Express he provided cash and cheque payments totalling $60 million over several months to Warner who assured that the money would be repaid from a US$10 million cheque payment he was expecting from FIFA.
Lalla told a tale of cash withdrawals of hundreds of thousands of dollars and of the Warner cash pick-ups at his Pt Lisas office in Couva.
Wads of hundred dollar bills, tightly packed in plain brown envelopes were picked up by Warner or his driver, according to Lalla, who has been linked to controversial construction works at the homes of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and defeated People’s Partnership candidate Ashworth Jack.
Lalla, who said he was naïve and believed Warner to be “a man of means”, said he provided $32 million in cash payments and another $28 million in cheque payments to Warner.
He said Warner at first claimed to be “busy, busy” with the election campaign and assured that he would have his lawyers draw up a mortgage charge in his favour for the now disputed Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence.
Cheque payments totaling $27.6 million were made to an entity called Centre of Excellence/Indoor Facility and another $1 million was paid to Jamad Ltd, the private Warner corporation which turned up as a beneficiary of substantial multi-million dollar payments from the national football federation and LOC Germany 2006, a Warner/Kenny Rampersad-created company.
Former prime m inister and founder of the UNC Basdeo Panday said he raised the issue of Lalla’s money with Warner following a complaint from the UNC financier.
He said Warner initially denied he got the $60 million and told Panday to “doh worry with him, he is a liar”.
Panday said when Lalla filed a pre-action protocol letter, Warner’s story changed.
“He came to an executive meeting of which I was chairman and he said in front of the entire executive that Krishna Lalla did not give him $60 million. He gave him $30 million as a loan not for him to pay back.
“So I asked him surely that was not a gift, that was for the party and will you account for it? Will you give an account for how you spent $30 million and that’s when the roof caved in and Jack decided he was going to get rid of me,” said Panday, adding that Warner later sued him for libel when he said publicly that he took money on behalf of the party and would not account for it.
He said Warner later withdrew the libel action and was ordered to pay $25,000 in costs, which he is yet to pay.
In his statement of defence in the Lalla lawsuit, Warner said the money was a gift. But it was a Warner interpreted gift that was never declared to the BIR.
Commenting on Minister Roodal Moonilal’s defence of Warner that the alleged acts of corruption were invalid because they predated his December 2007 political career, Panday said: “So there is a time for thieving and there is a time for not?”
The Lalla cheques to the two Warner entities were deposited in the main at First Citizens, Queen’s Park East and Republic Bank, Tragarete Road, Port of Spain.
The Centre of Excellence/Indoor Facility Warner used as a front for the Lalla payments is not a registered entity and is unrelated to the partnership known as C.O.N.C.A.C.A.F Centre of Excellence, which later changed its name to the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence—a mirror company to the Bahamian-registered real Concacaf.
Sunday Express investigations found that Warner created a slew of parallel bank accounts in the names of football bodies he was associated with and diverted funds intended for those bodies into secret accounts controlled by him.
The Simmons report spoke of a Centre of Excellence bank account which was in receipt of huge sums of Concacaf money for which the Simmons Integrity Committee was unable to get any information about from First Citizens.
First Citizens was also the bank which facilitated two unauthorised mortgages to Warner. In both cases, the Concacaf signatories used by Warner were not corporate officers and had no authority to commit the Confederation to borrowings of almost US$8 million.
The board resolution cited in the 2007 bank charge was also called into question by Sir David Simmons.
What exactly did First Citizens, a state-owned bank, rely on in giving Warner a near US$8 million credit facility given the Simmons revelation that the signatories on record were not authorised corporate officers?
The bank’s corporate secretary Sharon Christopher confined her remarks to the general vetting practice and bank-customer confidentiality.
“The bank, in carrying out any transaction, seeks the appropriate legal advisers, number one and secondly, the bank is not in a position to comment on client information because we are bound by the rules of client confidentiality.”
Pressed on the issue of whether the bank was rigorous in checking the bona fides of the individuals who signed the mortgage documents, she said: “In issuing a bank charge the board uses legal advisers to assist them in the transactions and everything is done in accordance with the law. That is our position.”
The bank’s former chief executive officer and now Cabinet colleague of Minister Warner, Larry Howai, who is abroad, said he is yet to see the Simmons report, but noted: “The bank would ensure that the sources of funds were properly verified and its attorneys would have vetted any advances to the borrower so I’m not sure what the basis of the allegation is.”
And while First Citizens has taken cover behind what would ordinarily obtain, Simmons was clear on Friday that the bank failed to ensure that the signatories to the near US$8 million loan, Lisle Austin and Harold Taylor, had the requisite authority to sign on behalf of Concacaf.
The Sunday Express found more parallel bank accounts held in the name of TTFF at First Citizens and Republic Bank, Long Circular Branch.
As reported in last Sunday Express, the Federation’s top executives told a case management conference (CMC) they had knowledge of only three official bank accounts.
This newspaper found no less than 13, four of which were off the company’s books.
• More on this in Part V which continues in the Express on Tuesday.
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