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JACK’S SMART COURT MOVES
Ex-minister mastermind behind preventing full disclosure of football $$
By Part VI of a Special Investigation Camini Marajh Head Investigative Desk
Story Created: Apr 24, 2013 at 10:42 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 24, 2013 at 11:34 PM ECT
In March 2012, in a hit-back at the court’s attempt to follow the money and compel the national football federation to bring its rogue agent Jack Warner to book, attorney Om Lalla asserted that “improper pressure” was being brought on the Federation and its executive “to coerce them into action” against his client and former de facto boss of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).
The Lalla accusation followed half a dozen years of courtroom manoeuvres thrown up by Warner’s frontmen, Oliver Camps and Richard Groden, to dodge a volley of full-disclosure orders made by the court for the federation’s accounts. The Camps-Groden-led TTFF repeatedly failed to produce full and accurate financial records, as ordered, and disclosed instead four sets of conflicting accounts done by Warner’s accountant-in-chief, Kenny Rampersad.
It was only when they were threatened with contempt proceedings that Camps and Groden admitted to the controlling role Warner played from behind the scenes. In startling court affidavits filed last year, the two men separately pinned the entire debacle of false and misleading financial information relating to TTFF and LOC Germany 2006 Ltd—the company used as a clearing house for World Cup sponsorship money—on the man they previously described as a benefactor and the best thing to ever happen to local football.
They made clear that Warner was the mastermind behind the scenes and the man holding all the books and financial records of the national football federation and LOC Germany. The two understated the facilitating role they played in giving the self-appointed negotiating agent of LOC Germany full control of all of the fede*ration’s World Cup sponsorship revenue—said to be about $205.6 million, of which more than $100 million is unaccounted for.
The Camps and Groden duet claimed Warner had failed to respond to their repeated requests for financial records and other banking information related to the two companies. With the threat of contempt proceedings hanging over his head and no free get-out-of-jail card in sight, the former TTFF president of more than ten years, Camps, on February 17 last year, had his newly rostered lawyer, Derek Ali, dispatch a pre-action protocol letter to Warner with a demand for an account of sponsorship and other monies related to the 2006 World Cup campaign.
His previous lawyer on record, Om Lalla, who is also Warner’s substantive local counsel, in correspondence addressed to Ali and submitted to the court, took apparent umbrage with the tone and specific nature of the Camps request.
In criticism directed at the presiding judge, Devindra Rampersad, Lalla said: “We wish to express our grave concern at what we can only describe as what appears to be improper pressure being brought on the TTFF and its executive to coerce them into action against our client. “We have sought the opinion of Senior Counsel on this matter and, should the occasion arise, we will take the necessary steps to strenuously protect the interests of our client.” The letter noted that it was Camps who “organised the business of football through the TTFF and LOC Germany 2006”.
According to Lalla, Warner was merely one of five directors of LOC Germany.
He, however, omitted to mention that LOC Germany was a Warner-Rampersad creation in which Warner’s son, Daryll, and longtime secretary, Patricia Modeste, were also directors together with Groden and Camps.
Lalla noted: “Your letter states that you are instructed that our client received monies, gifts, donations, grants and other benefits for and on behalf of the TTFF and for the benefit of the TTFF. If by this it is meant that our client was personally/beneficially in receipt in his own name of such gifts and other like donations and benefits, we are advised that your instructions are totally incorrect.”
Lalla said Warner was well known for the prominent role he played as TTFF’s special adviser in national and international football, and made clear that his client was “never personally, in his own name, in receipt of monies, gifts, donations, grants and like benefits on behalf of the TTFF either as agent or servant which were not handed over or deposited to the accounts of the TTFF and LOC Germany 2006.”
He held that: “All contributions were made directly to or in the name of the TTFF and or LOC Germany 2006.” Lalla neglected to mention the small detail of the tens of millions of public and private sector funds redirected from TTFF’s bank accounts to LOC Germany and other private Warner corporations or the fact that Warner had exclusive control of LOC.
He contended that “all monies” received on behalf of the Football Federation were either payable or made payable to TTFF and/ or LOC Germany and “not to our client in his personal capacity”.
Lalla countered that contrary to the
claim of Warner being reluctant to assist the court, “we are instructed to assure you that at all times our client has given full and honest disclosure of all rele*vant information within his knowledge”.
Lalla argued that: “The imputation contained in your instructions that our client in some way failed to make honest and full disclosure of all of the sponsorship revenue was disappointing and deeply resented and rejected.” He said, “Nothing could be further from the truth,” and noted that Warner had re-doubled his efforts to determine if there was further information relevant to the court’s enquiry that he might have overlooked.
Lalla pointed to the audited accounts of the TTFF and a reported $15 million debt owed to Warner for cash advances made to the federation. He noted that in addition to the $15 million debt stated in TTFF’s audited accounts, Warner had been instrumental in providing leased premises to the federation, to which outstanding rent of over $1 million was owed.
Ignoring the built-in conflicts of interest related to Warner’s lease arrangements with related football bodies, the Lalla letter stated: “This is mentioned not by way of any threat of immediate action to recover these outstanding monies but to demonstrate the fact that contrary to the imputation inhe*rent in your instructions the attitude and position of our client to yours has always been generous and not predatory.”
He also did not go into the opaque and confusing accounting picture created by the several sets of Rampersad-produced accounts and the huge and conflicting gaps between the different Rampersad-disclosed sponsorship income and the $205.6 million figure provided to Mike Townley by the previous administration.
Townley, the English lawyer for the Soca Warriors, said recently Warner and the Football Federation had shown a shameful disregard for the process of law. He declined to talk about the specific settlement numbers currently under discussion with TTFF’s new boss, Raymond Tim Kee, but was clear that: “The dispute reached a point of stalemate with the TTFF refusing consistently to provide the accounting evidence that we need to establish the players’ entitlement.”
According to him: “There have been all sorts of games played out over the past years with the intention of hiding the real figures for the revenue gene*rated from the 2006 World Cup. TTFF initially were happy to produce accounts until we pointed out that they were manifestly false, and then they tried to blame Jack Warner for keeping all the relevant information to himself.
“He says, ‘Oh no, I gave you all that information years ago.’ We are left now with little option but to petition the court for the winding-up of TTFF so that an Insolvency Trustee can open an investigation into where the money has gone.”
Asked how this case measured up with a varied legal career which included some significant pieces of legislation, Townley told the Express: “No one has come close to this. The mendaciousness of the defendant from the outset, the determination to hide the truth, the defiance of court orders, the false-accounting coupled with the high-handed manner that suggests that it is in fact the claimants who are at fault is staggering. It is in fact Kafkaesque.”
Townley said: “Before the credibility of the TTFF and those managing it were brought to nought with all their lies they used to regularly lambaste the claimants for not respecting the sanctity of the court. They are a parody of themselves.”
He said things reached a “farcical level when we applied to join Warner to the action” and the same lawyers claimed to represent Warner and the TTFF and refused to acknowledge the obvious conflict of interest even when this was pointed out by the judge.
The roster of lawyers representing both the football federation and Warner up to last year included Dereck Balliram, British QC William McCormick and Om Lalla. Documents obtained by this newspaper show that on March 5, 2011, Lalla sent an e-mail about the previous day’s CMC’s (Case Management Conference) hearing to several persons, including clients Warner, Camps and Rampersad.
The e-mail noted in part: “The two major issues to have been determined was the time frame for the preparation of detailed accounts as per the Order. The time given is three months which is very generous given the last comments of the judge and opposition of the claimants. I request that Kenny Rampersad be immediately contacted to see if he can comply with the Order of the court as compliance will be crucial at this point.”
The e-mail urged: “Pls bear in mind the ability to successfully argue this matter depends on the ability to provide accounts requested by the judge. If at that stage we are unable to provide details of where the money was spent the judge can request tracing Orders to see where the money went. I can provide more details of what is expected or done but will prefer to do so at conference.”
The Lalla e-mail noted: “Once again the guiding factor is the accounts and the advice of Kenny and his ability to comply with the order of the court. Pls let me have your comments if you need any further clarification.”
Part VII continues on Sunday with Public Misconduct
Ex-minister mastermind behind preventing full disclosure of football $$
By Part VI of a Special Investigation Camini Marajh Head Investigative Desk
Story Created: Apr 24, 2013 at 10:42 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 24, 2013 at 11:34 PM ECT
In March 2012, in a hit-back at the court’s attempt to follow the money and compel the national football federation to bring its rogue agent Jack Warner to book, attorney Om Lalla asserted that “improper pressure” was being brought on the Federation and its executive “to coerce them into action” against his client and former de facto boss of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF).
The Lalla accusation followed half a dozen years of courtroom manoeuvres thrown up by Warner’s frontmen, Oliver Camps and Richard Groden, to dodge a volley of full-disclosure orders made by the court for the federation’s accounts. The Camps-Groden-led TTFF repeatedly failed to produce full and accurate financial records, as ordered, and disclosed instead four sets of conflicting accounts done by Warner’s accountant-in-chief, Kenny Rampersad.
It was only when they were threatened with contempt proceedings that Camps and Groden admitted to the controlling role Warner played from behind the scenes. In startling court affidavits filed last year, the two men separately pinned the entire debacle of false and misleading financial information relating to TTFF and LOC Germany 2006 Ltd—the company used as a clearing house for World Cup sponsorship money—on the man they previously described as a benefactor and the best thing to ever happen to local football.
They made clear that Warner was the mastermind behind the scenes and the man holding all the books and financial records of the national football federation and LOC Germany. The two understated the facilitating role they played in giving the self-appointed negotiating agent of LOC Germany full control of all of the fede*ration’s World Cup sponsorship revenue—said to be about $205.6 million, of which more than $100 million is unaccounted for.
The Camps and Groden duet claimed Warner had failed to respond to their repeated requests for financial records and other banking information related to the two companies. With the threat of contempt proceedings hanging over his head and no free get-out-of-jail card in sight, the former TTFF president of more than ten years, Camps, on February 17 last year, had his newly rostered lawyer, Derek Ali, dispatch a pre-action protocol letter to Warner with a demand for an account of sponsorship and other monies related to the 2006 World Cup campaign.
His previous lawyer on record, Om Lalla, who is also Warner’s substantive local counsel, in correspondence addressed to Ali and submitted to the court, took apparent umbrage with the tone and specific nature of the Camps request.
In criticism directed at the presiding judge, Devindra Rampersad, Lalla said: “We wish to express our grave concern at what we can only describe as what appears to be improper pressure being brought on the TTFF and its executive to coerce them into action against our client. “We have sought the opinion of Senior Counsel on this matter and, should the occasion arise, we will take the necessary steps to strenuously protect the interests of our client.” The letter noted that it was Camps who “organised the business of football through the TTFF and LOC Germany 2006”.
According to Lalla, Warner was merely one of five directors of LOC Germany.
He, however, omitted to mention that LOC Germany was a Warner-Rampersad creation in which Warner’s son, Daryll, and longtime secretary, Patricia Modeste, were also directors together with Groden and Camps.
Lalla noted: “Your letter states that you are instructed that our client received monies, gifts, donations, grants and other benefits for and on behalf of the TTFF and for the benefit of the TTFF. If by this it is meant that our client was personally/beneficially in receipt in his own name of such gifts and other like donations and benefits, we are advised that your instructions are totally incorrect.”
Lalla said Warner was well known for the prominent role he played as TTFF’s special adviser in national and international football, and made clear that his client was “never personally, in his own name, in receipt of monies, gifts, donations, grants and like benefits on behalf of the TTFF either as agent or servant which were not handed over or deposited to the accounts of the TTFF and LOC Germany 2006.”
He held that: “All contributions were made directly to or in the name of the TTFF and or LOC Germany 2006.” Lalla neglected to mention the small detail of the tens of millions of public and private sector funds redirected from TTFF’s bank accounts to LOC Germany and other private Warner corporations or the fact that Warner had exclusive control of LOC.
He contended that “all monies” received on behalf of the Football Federation were either payable or made payable to TTFF and/ or LOC Germany and “not to our client in his personal capacity”.
Lalla countered that contrary to the
claim of Warner being reluctant to assist the court, “we are instructed to assure you that at all times our client has given full and honest disclosure of all rele*vant information within his knowledge”.
Lalla argued that: “The imputation contained in your instructions that our client in some way failed to make honest and full disclosure of all of the sponsorship revenue was disappointing and deeply resented and rejected.” He said, “Nothing could be further from the truth,” and noted that Warner had re-doubled his efforts to determine if there was further information relevant to the court’s enquiry that he might have overlooked.
Lalla pointed to the audited accounts of the TTFF and a reported $15 million debt owed to Warner for cash advances made to the federation. He noted that in addition to the $15 million debt stated in TTFF’s audited accounts, Warner had been instrumental in providing leased premises to the federation, to which outstanding rent of over $1 million was owed.
Ignoring the built-in conflicts of interest related to Warner’s lease arrangements with related football bodies, the Lalla letter stated: “This is mentioned not by way of any threat of immediate action to recover these outstanding monies but to demonstrate the fact that contrary to the imputation inhe*rent in your instructions the attitude and position of our client to yours has always been generous and not predatory.”
He also did not go into the opaque and confusing accounting picture created by the several sets of Rampersad-produced accounts and the huge and conflicting gaps between the different Rampersad-disclosed sponsorship income and the $205.6 million figure provided to Mike Townley by the previous administration.
Townley, the English lawyer for the Soca Warriors, said recently Warner and the Football Federation had shown a shameful disregard for the process of law. He declined to talk about the specific settlement numbers currently under discussion with TTFF’s new boss, Raymond Tim Kee, but was clear that: “The dispute reached a point of stalemate with the TTFF refusing consistently to provide the accounting evidence that we need to establish the players’ entitlement.”
According to him: “There have been all sorts of games played out over the past years with the intention of hiding the real figures for the revenue gene*rated from the 2006 World Cup. TTFF initially were happy to produce accounts until we pointed out that they were manifestly false, and then they tried to blame Jack Warner for keeping all the relevant information to himself.
“He says, ‘Oh no, I gave you all that information years ago.’ We are left now with little option but to petition the court for the winding-up of TTFF so that an Insolvency Trustee can open an investigation into where the money has gone.”
Asked how this case measured up with a varied legal career which included some significant pieces of legislation, Townley told the Express: “No one has come close to this. The mendaciousness of the defendant from the outset, the determination to hide the truth, the defiance of court orders, the false-accounting coupled with the high-handed manner that suggests that it is in fact the claimants who are at fault is staggering. It is in fact Kafkaesque.”
Townley said: “Before the credibility of the TTFF and those managing it were brought to nought with all their lies they used to regularly lambaste the claimants for not respecting the sanctity of the court. They are a parody of themselves.”
He said things reached a “farcical level when we applied to join Warner to the action” and the same lawyers claimed to represent Warner and the TTFF and refused to acknowledge the obvious conflict of interest even when this was pointed out by the judge.
The roster of lawyers representing both the football federation and Warner up to last year included Dereck Balliram, British QC William McCormick and Om Lalla. Documents obtained by this newspaper show that on March 5, 2011, Lalla sent an e-mail about the previous day’s CMC’s (Case Management Conference) hearing to several persons, including clients Warner, Camps and Rampersad.
The e-mail noted in part: “The two major issues to have been determined was the time frame for the preparation of detailed accounts as per the Order. The time given is three months which is very generous given the last comments of the judge and opposition of the claimants. I request that Kenny Rampersad be immediately contacted to see if he can comply with the Order of the court as compliance will be crucial at this point.”
The e-mail urged: “Pls bear in mind the ability to successfully argue this matter depends on the ability to provide accounts requested by the judge. If at that stage we are unable to provide details of where the money was spent the judge can request tracing Orders to see where the money went. I can provide more details of what is expected or done but will prefer to do so at conference.”
The Lalla e-mail noted: “Once again the guiding factor is the accounts and the advice of Kenny and his ability to comply with the order of the court. Pls let me have your comments if you need any further clarification.”
Part VII continues on Sunday with Public Misconduct
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