(Trinidad Express) Daryan Warner, the eldest son of National Security Minister Jack Warner, has shied away from answering burning questions on rumours that started flying since last November.
The question he has however answered outrightly is whether he is under house arrest in the United States. He has denied it and lifted his pants to show he is not wearing an ankle bracelet that would have tracked his movements.
He is adamant he is in no way restricted from moving around, but is he allowed to leave the US?
Is he the subject of any investigation by US authorities?
He is silent on these questions.
Warner was content to prove to the Express that he was certainly not limited to the confines of the Skyline condo building in Miami, Florida, when we visited him last week.
And so he left in his BMW coupe as he agreed to meet the Express at PF Chang’s, a restaurant, ten minutes away.
On arrival, Warner instead opted to visit a neighbouring bar. He calmly sauntered in and ordered a beer.
Leaning against the bar, Warner told the Express if people were so interested in tracking his movements, they could have checked his credit card activity.
There has been an air of secrecy and mystery regarding what transpired—if anything at all—in Trinidad or in the US last year. That is when the rumour mill started churning.
For months, the Express has been attempting to collate solid information with supporting documents to verify rumours that were circulating. But hard, cold, documented facts were hard to come by. The reports that have floated to the top emanate from high-ranking intelligence sources here in Trinidad and the United States—but so far, the media have no proof.
Talk about financial transactions and other questionable dealings were not up for discussion with Daryan Warner, but he did say he felt the spotlight was unfairly targeted on him because of his father, Jack Warner.
“I am not a politician; for me to open an options trading account in the US, you have to declare, you have to go to compliance because my family member is a politician. What is the deal? You get rejected 90 per cent of the time. If my father wants to serve the country, work with people in Trinidad and Tobago, what does that have to do with me? Why am I accountable to anybody?” he asked.
Yesterday, we contacted Minister Warner who, in a dismissive tone, said: “Mr Bassant, I am not talking to you and I am not talking to anybody at TV6.”
Daryan, speaking to the Express in Miami last week, said all the allegations were adversely affecting some of his family members because of his job.
“You went by my ex-wife about a week and a half ago; you’re doing your job and I am happy for you, but why should my ex-wife and kids be under duress because my father is a politician?”
Local media reports have speculated about a sealed indictment in the US.
A sealed indictment is usually issued by a judge presiding over felony cases. A judge can order an indictment to be sealed and demand that it be kept secret until a specified time.
Only those responsible for issuing a warrant against a suspect are made aware of an indictment while it is sealed.
The Express spoke to an official inside the records department of the US Federal Court in the Southern District of Florida.
He explained that an indictment may be sealed to avoid tipping off the defendant or if the defendant has a case pending.
Another case scenario that can occur, the official explained, is if the defendant co-operates with the government’s prosecution of others who may be defendants in the same case or defendants in cases with other case numbers, then the case may remain sealed because of co-operation.
Sealed indictments are becoming more popular as part of one of the broadest initiatives the US government has undertaken because of US taxpayers’ use of offshore accounts to hide taxable income.
Mark Berman, a federal defence attorney in New York, told the Express yesterday there is also the likelihood that the individual’s name will appear in court records, but the information on the docket will not be revealed.
“If a defendant is arrested, they get in front of a judge. They get to see the indictment. It stays sealed on the docket but not publicly available, and there will be an indication on the docket, you know the indictment is sealed and then eventually, the government makes a motion to unseal the indictment,” he said.
During our time at the court, the Express carried out a name search with respect to the Warners, but nothing appeared.
Berman told the Express in some cases, the entire indictment may be sealed—and not even the judge’s name is known.
A trip to the Trinidad and Tobago Consulate in Miami to find out if they had any information about any Trinidadian nationals having their passports seized or being detained for any reason by US authorities within the last three months bore little fruit.
A senior official who later spoke to us said there was protocol in place under the Vienna Convention for US authorities to notify the Consulate when nationals are detained. However, they are not at liberty to discuss such matters with the media or public.
That is the key to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar getting full knowledge of the real story here, according to Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley—through government-to-government relationships.
