(Trinidad Express) It was no secret that Austin Jack Warner, world football power broker and deep-pocketed political benefactor, made his own rules. The secret was his off-book transactions, misleading financial disclosures and maze of parallel bank accounts relating to all of the football bodies he was associated with.
Persons with knowledge of the situation and sensitive and long sought documents obtained by this newspaper reveal that Warner controlled a slew of official and secret bank accounts in the names of key football bodies, specifically, football’s ruling body for North and Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf), the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) and LOC Germany 2006 Ltd.
A trusted and influential football figure considered above reproach, Warner maintained a tightly controlled power structure that he put in place which some say is still in force today.
No questions were asked and no explanations were provided, either to the executive staff that managed the affairs of the various football bodies or to the accountants and auditors who signed off the financial statements without qualification.
His accountant-in-chief and general man of business, Kenny Rampersad, a certified accountant of 3A Queen’s Park West, Port of Spain, facilitated and covered up the deceit.
He was also the beneficiary of all of the accounting briefs, from all of the football bodies, and in some cases, he was both bookkeeper and auditor.
Investigations by the Express found that Warner funnelled tens of millions of public and private sector money into parallel bank accounts, often held at the same branch as the official bank accounts.
For instance, the Republic Bank account on Tragarete Road, Port of Spain in which disgraced ex-AFC (Asian Football Confederation) president Mohamed bin Hammam wire transferred US$250,000 to Warner in 2008, was not known to CFU officials.
CFU officials had knowledge of only two accounts, a TT-dollar and US-dollar at that bank. All of the CFU accounts at that branch, official and secret, were controlled by Warner.
In the case of the secret CFU account, the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), found evidence of commingling of private Warner money and CFU funds.
In the long-fought legal battle with the Soca Warriors for their fair share of earnings derived from the 2006 World Cup, TTFF’s former top officials, Oliver Camps and Richard Groden, claimed to have knowledge of only three bank accounts for the national football federation.
Warner’s frontmen claimed to have little knowledge about much of anything of the financial affairs of the football federation, including where over TT$100 million in public and private sector money has disappeared to.
According to Camps, the former president of more than ten years, and Groden, who is still the substantive general secretary of the TTFF, Warner was the man in charge.
The two, in affidavits given to a Case Management Conference (ICMC), said the Federation’s special adviser Warner managed the accounts and at all material times had control and possession of all of the Federation’s financial records and information.
Warner was also an authorised signatory to TTFF’s bank accounts and had exclusive control of the agent company, LOC Germany 2006, which was used as a conduit to move tens of millions of sponsorship money from the Federation’s bank accounts.
The agent company was a Warner-Rampersad creation.
And while the evidence shows that Camps and Groden facilitated cash transfers in the tens of millions of dollars to Warner and his private companies and LOC Germany 2006, they maintained that they knew little or nothing and that the court should look to Warner for answers to where the World Cup millions have gone.
Warner, for his part, told the court he had handed over everything he had in his possession after a thorough search and was unable to provide further assistance.
The Sir David Simmons Integrity Committee findings reported an eyewitness account of documents being shredded at his Concacaf office command centre.
Warner did not tell the court about the more than ten TTFF bank accounts to which he was an authorised signatory or the fact that any one person to those accounts could write a cheque for substantial millions.
Included in the list of 13 TTFF bank accounts found by this newspaper, four are not in the books of TTFF.
The four off-book bank accounts in which Warner is a signatory are:
• Account number 1681812, a business chequing account at First Citizens, Corner of Park and Henry Streets
• Account number 1687386, also business chequing at First Citizens, Corner of Park and Henry Streets
• Account number 000 213 059 573, a USD savings at Republic Bank, Long Circular Mall
• Account number 290 442 973 501, a current account at Republic Bank, Long Circular Mall
The other accounts not disclosed to the court are:
• 560 153 935 901—a current account at Republic Bank, Long Circular Mall
• 110 001 636 001—another current account at Republic Bank, Long Circular Mall
• 1506975—US savings at First Citizens, Corner of Park and Henry Streets
• 1506976—business chequing at First Citizens, Corner of Park and Henry Streets
Account disclosed:
Republic Bank West Mall, account number 10121.
Other TTFF accounts, status unknown are:
• account 00001
• account 20508
• account 50100
• account 20500
It is not known whether the CFU account—420504421401—at Republic Bank on Tragarete Road in which he collected a $500,000 cheque payment from UNC financier Krishna Lalla is the same one bin Hammam made the US$250,000 payment to.
Warner also has an account in the name of one of his private corporations, Jamad Ltd at Republic Bank, Tragarete Road. That account number is 2904548233801.
He also has private accounts in his name—Austin Jack Warner— at First Citizens, Queen’s Park West, Port of Spain, and the unregistered entity the Express wrote about on Sunday, Centre of Excellence/Indoor Facility, also at First Citizens, Queen’s Park West.
He also has parallel Concacaf and Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence accounts at First Citizens, the state bank which facilitated a near US$8 million in unauthorised borrowings to Concacaf, Warner and two of his private companies.
