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The master puppeteer
By Camini Marajh Head Investigative Desk
Story Created: Apr 30, 2013 at 9:53 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 30, 2013 at 11:05 PM ECT
Part VIII of a Special Investigation
It was a role he knew well and had played once before with spectacular results. He was a master puppeteer who, by his own admission, had delivered the FIFA throne to despised football official Sepp Blatter in a tightly contested presidential race in Paris in the summer of 1998.
Jack Warner, the corruption-scarred ex-vice president of the world football governing body and former national security minister, admitted, in a bit of “Straight Talk” on Thursday night to manipulating the Paris 1998 vote to ensure a Blatter victory over rival Lennart Johansson.
Warner was the fix-it man former FIFA boss Joao Havelange (found guilty last month of bribe-taking) had turned to ensure a Blatter win. Warner’s far-reaching influence and behind-the-scenes string-pulling saw the fraudulent use of a proxy vote and the Havelange reward of debt forgiveness on a US$6 million Centre of Excellence (CoE) start-up loan.
It was also the start of a very close and fabulously rich relationship between Warner and Blatter which saw both men embark on a slew of individual deal making and private empire-building. The self-dealing and enrichment schemes escaped rigorous scrutiny for more than a decade because they had each other’s back.
The two rubbished critics from within while deflecting requests for scrutiny and censure from the media and some FIFA Executive Committee (ExCo) members, according to FIFA board minutes seen by this reporter. In a February 2002 FIFA board minute, a Johansson proposal to set up an investigation commission to look at a series of financial issues, including Blatter’s pay, was shot down by an irate Warner, the then-deputy chairman of FIFA’s Finance Committee.
Pouring scorn on the Johansson bid to have a member of each of the six confederations empanelled on an investigatory committee to look into allegations of financial impropriety, Warner said it was “tantamount to an indictment on the Finance Committee,” and expressed the view that it was “purposely intended to compound problems” of the perceived lack of transparency in FIFA.
Warner dramatically threatened to quit the Finance Committee if ExCo members continued to show so little faith and feigned concern about how the media would interpret such a resignation. Some ExCo members backed down while Warner supporters took issue with the use of the word “investigation.”
It was a word that would come back to haunt him a near decade later. It cast a long shadow on all of his football and political dealings and put him in the crosshairs of several international football corruption probes. The serial betrayal and backstabbing among the former close football allies, following the infamous cash-for-votes affair at a Port of Spain hotel, has had the chilling effect of opening a Pandora’s box of deep corruption football secrets of a global scale.
All of the principal characters who were central to the FIFA bribery story have been taking sniper shots at the others from the shadows, all have denied allegations of wrongdoing and all are now subject to some investigation or sanction.
FIFA’s standard bearer, Sepp Blatter, meanwhile, continues to feign surprise and hurt about new revelations of corruption involving his former allies.
Blatter who, according to Warner, had knowledge of the CoE arrangement, expressed shock at the bombshell findings of the Sir David Simmons-led Integrity Committee report into Concacaf’s finances and has been talking a good talk about reforming the world football body and ensuring transparency and accountability.
He is said to be behind a lot of Warner’s troubles. But some of Jack Warner’s troubles, as this special investigation has found, are of his own making. It was Warner who suggested to the wealthy Mohamed bin Hammam that he should abandon any plans to bring Qatari sand or silver to Port of Spain.
It was Warner who made the cash-gift suggestion, Warner who facilitated the meeting at the Port of Spain Hyatt for his buddy to make his pitch for the FIFA presidency, Warner who had possession of a suitcase full of US$1 million cash at his Ministry of Works office at the corner of Richmond and London Streets in Port of Spain and Warner who abetted a cover-up until a secret video recording exposing the lie of his initial denial was made public.
And as investigations by this newspaper reveal, Warner also ripped off his pal bin Hammam. The Qatari had wire-transferred US$360,000 to a secret CFU (Caribbean Football Union) bank account at Republic Bank on Tragarete Road, Port of Spain, to cover hotel and travel costs for delegates attending the Warner-arranged conference.
Bin Hammam told the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that he provided a supplemental payment of US$50,000 to take care of additional expenses. But persons familiar with the arrangements said the actual cost for both hotel and travel was closer to US$180,000, inclusive of limousine and executive car service. Insiders report that hotel bookings were for about 64 people, which included bin Hammam’s party.
Warner also abused his position as a government minister by using a public servant to assist bin Hammam’s party through Immigration and Customs.
But as subsequent events would show, this master puppeteer still had a few moves left.
By Camini Marajh Head Investigative Desk
Story Created: Apr 30, 2013 at 9:53 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 30, 2013 at 11:05 PM ECT
Part VIII of a Special Investigation
It was a role he knew well and had played once before with spectacular results. He was a master puppeteer who, by his own admission, had delivered the FIFA throne to despised football official Sepp Blatter in a tightly contested presidential race in Paris in the summer of 1998.
Jack Warner, the corruption-scarred ex-vice president of the world football governing body and former national security minister, admitted, in a bit of “Straight Talk” on Thursday night to manipulating the Paris 1998 vote to ensure a Blatter victory over rival Lennart Johansson.
Warner was the fix-it man former FIFA boss Joao Havelange (found guilty last month of bribe-taking) had turned to ensure a Blatter win. Warner’s far-reaching influence and behind-the-scenes string-pulling saw the fraudulent use of a proxy vote and the Havelange reward of debt forgiveness on a US$6 million Centre of Excellence (CoE) start-up loan.
It was also the start of a very close and fabulously rich relationship between Warner and Blatter which saw both men embark on a slew of individual deal making and private empire-building. The self-dealing and enrichment schemes escaped rigorous scrutiny for more than a decade because they had each other’s back.
The two rubbished critics from within while deflecting requests for scrutiny and censure from the media and some FIFA Executive Committee (ExCo) members, according to FIFA board minutes seen by this reporter. In a February 2002 FIFA board minute, a Johansson proposal to set up an investigation commission to look at a series of financial issues, including Blatter’s pay, was shot down by an irate Warner, the then-deputy chairman of FIFA’s Finance Committee.
Pouring scorn on the Johansson bid to have a member of each of the six confederations empanelled on an investigatory committee to look into allegations of financial impropriety, Warner said it was “tantamount to an indictment on the Finance Committee,” and expressed the view that it was “purposely intended to compound problems” of the perceived lack of transparency in FIFA.
Warner dramatically threatened to quit the Finance Committee if ExCo members continued to show so little faith and feigned concern about how the media would interpret such a resignation. Some ExCo members backed down while Warner supporters took issue with the use of the word “investigation.”
It was a word that would come back to haunt him a near decade later. It cast a long shadow on all of his football and political dealings and put him in the crosshairs of several international football corruption probes. The serial betrayal and backstabbing among the former close football allies, following the infamous cash-for-votes affair at a Port of Spain hotel, has had the chilling effect of opening a Pandora’s box of deep corruption football secrets of a global scale.
All of the principal characters who were central to the FIFA bribery story have been taking sniper shots at the others from the shadows, all have denied allegations of wrongdoing and all are now subject to some investigation or sanction.
FIFA’s standard bearer, Sepp Blatter, meanwhile, continues to feign surprise and hurt about new revelations of corruption involving his former allies.
Blatter who, according to Warner, had knowledge of the CoE arrangement, expressed shock at the bombshell findings of the Sir David Simmons-led Integrity Committee report into Concacaf’s finances and has been talking a good talk about reforming the world football body and ensuring transparency and accountability.
He is said to be behind a lot of Warner’s troubles. But some of Jack Warner’s troubles, as this special investigation has found, are of his own making. It was Warner who suggested to the wealthy Mohamed bin Hammam that he should abandon any plans to bring Qatari sand or silver to Port of Spain.
It was Warner who made the cash-gift suggestion, Warner who facilitated the meeting at the Port of Spain Hyatt for his buddy to make his pitch for the FIFA presidency, Warner who had possession of a suitcase full of US$1 million cash at his Ministry of Works office at the corner of Richmond and London Streets in Port of Spain and Warner who abetted a cover-up until a secret video recording exposing the lie of his initial denial was made public.
And as investigations by this newspaper reveal, Warner also ripped off his pal bin Hammam. The Qatari had wire-transferred US$360,000 to a secret CFU (Caribbean Football Union) bank account at Republic Bank on Tragarete Road, Port of Spain, to cover hotel and travel costs for delegates attending the Warner-arranged conference.
Bin Hammam told the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that he provided a supplemental payment of US$50,000 to take care of additional expenses. But persons familiar with the arrangements said the actual cost for both hotel and travel was closer to US$180,000, inclusive of limousine and executive car service. Insiders report that hotel bookings were for about 64 people, which included bin Hammam’s party.
Warner also abused his position as a government minister by using a public servant to assist bin Hammam’s party through Immigration and Customs.
But as subsequent events would show, this master puppeteer still had a few moves left.
To be continued on Sunday.