Did Former FIFA VP Jack Warner Steal Haiti Relief Funds?
Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has been accused of stealing funds donated by FIFA and the South Korea Football Association for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. If true, this would be yet another scandal for FIFA in what has been a rough year for the organization and its former vice-president.
American investigators allege that the former executive diverted over $750,000 of relief money away from the hands of victims in Haiti and directed it into his own personal bank account. Upon the money entering his account, Warner allegedly used the funds at his own discretion and for his own “personal use.”
This is hardly Jack’s first brush with allegations of corruption. Just last month, he was arrested in Trinidad and now faces extradition to the United States on charges of money laundering and corruption. The former FIFA underboss has also been implicated in a $150 million bribery scandal. Warner has infamously decried the charges against him as a conspiracy, touting a satirical article from the Onion as proof. It has also been alleged that in 2010 the former vice-president received $10 million from South Africa in exchange for his vote in their World Cup bid. South Africa denies bribing any officials. In regards to the missing Haiti relief funds, however, suspicion has surrounded Warner and the misappropriation of funds for victims in Haiti as early as 2012. In February of that year, the Trinidad & Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) insisted that relief funds for Haiti never made it to the disaster stricken Caribbean island, and was instead paid into Jack’s bank account. Warner, vice-president of FIFA at the time, denied any wrongdoing, leading FIFA to freeze funding to the TTFF.
Warner, however, isn’t the type to go down without a fight. Responding to corruption and money laundering allegations against him, the former FIFA executive issued a seven minute television ad earlier this month entitled “The Gloves are Off”, painting himself as a Gandhi like victim. The now disgraced Warner has also claimed that FIFA used funds to manipulate federal politics in Trinidad and Tobago, claiming that he possessed documents linking former president Sepp Blatter and other senior officials to the 2010 Trinidad & Tobago election. The alleged documents are now in “respected hands.”
Daryn and Daryll, Jack’s sons, are reportedly cooperating with American authorities, having pleaded guilty in 2013 after being caught attempting to deposit over $600,000 in multiple American banks in an attempt to avoid detection for money laundering and corruption. From Warner’s recent statements and with Blatter’s resignation, it would be a surprise if this is the last we hear about FIFA, corruption, and Jack Warner.
[Image via Caribbean 360]
