Warner returns to political hustings
Published:Wednesday | July 26, 2023 | 12:11 AM
PORT-Of- SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
More than 10 years after the disgraced international football executive, Austin Jack Warner, was booted out of the coalition People’s Partnership government and told to go “clear” his name of several corruption related charges in the United States, he has returned to the political hustings hoping to boost the chances of the opposition party in the August 14 local government elections.
In April 2013, Warner was forced to resign from the United National Congress (UNC)-led People’s Partnership government with then prime minister Kamla Persad Bissessar later indicating that “I have said repeatedly to Mr Warner, clear your name and come back home.
“As long as Mr Warner does not clear his name, then we can’t accept him in the House of the Rising Sun. It’s as simple as that,” she added.
But on Monday night, dressed in a yellow shirt, the colour of the UNC, where he once served as chairman, Warner, 80, told party supporters “this kind of greetings I have just received, I am asking myself why wasn’t I hear before”.
In 2015, the International Football Federation (FIFA) banned Warner, who had served as its vice president from 1990-2011, from all soccer-related activities for life.
US prosecutors allege that from as far back as 1990, Warner leveraged his influence and exploited his official positions for personal gain.
Among other things, he is accused of receiving US$5 million in bribes – sent via more than two dozen separate wire transfers, from 10 different shell companies, to a Caribbean Football Union account he controlled at Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago – to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.
Warner was one of 14 defendants charged in connection with the 24-year scheme that prosecutors alleged was designed to “enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer”.
On November 17, 2022, the Privy Council, Trinidad and Tobago’s highest court, paved the way for the continuation of the proceedings to extradite Warner to the US to face fraud-related charges.