By Andrew Warshaw
August 22 – The pressure on scandal-tarnished former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner shows no sign of relenting in his own country with opposition parliamentarians questioning whether he broke money laundering rules.
Although he is no longer involved in football following last year’s cash-for-votes scandal over which he resigned, Warner is National Security Minister in Trinidad and Tobago.
Days before members of the Caribbean’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) are due to visit Trinidad and Tobago to hold talks with various heads, Opposition Senator Fitzgerald Hinds (pictured top) is keeping Warner’s name in the public domain.
Citing the infamous May 2011 Trinidad and Tobago meeting where Warner and Mohamed Bin Hammam are alleged to have colluded in bribing 25 members of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) ahead of the FIFA Presidential vote, Hinds wants answers as to how $1 million (£630,000/€800,000) got into the country and whether Warner (pictured below) is being properly investigated by the national Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
“I have not heard a word from the Financial Intelligence Unit on that to this day…I want to know whether they are investigating this matter,” Hinds said.
“We want to know how that US$1 million [£630,000/€800,000] came into Trinidad and Tobago.”
Although police chiefs have long said the matter is closed, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard has intervened and called for an investigation into possible breaches of the Customs Act.
As a result, said Hinds, questions had to be raised over how the $1 million (£630,000/€800,000), allegedly brought into Port of Spain with Warner’s knowledge, got there and whether any laws were broken.
“That can be recorded as a suspicious transaction,” said Hinds.
And he denounced the Government for continuing to remain silent.
“There are probably people in the Government structure of Trinidad and Tobago today whose activity and whose conduct cannot stand proper scrutiny of the FIU,” charged Hinds.
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