Jack’s boys awash in dirty money after scalping spree
THE Warner family’s problem at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was money — in particular, the fact that they had too much of the stuff.
Startling details have surfaced of how, after the sons of Caribbean soccer boss Jack Warner made a killing selling tickets to World Cup games at inflated prices to fans desperate to get into stadiums including Soccer City and Moses Mabhida, they spent five months discreetly depositing their loot with various banks to avoid arousing suspicion.
But the deposits — dozens at banks from New York to Miami and Las Vegas — left a trail of evidence that helped US investigators persuade Daryll, 40, and Daryan, 46, to become whistleblowers in the Fifa corruption scandal.
Bizarrely, they are now potential witnesses against their father, the former Fifa vice-president who is central to bribery claims levelled against South Africa.
Testimony given by the two in a secret courtroom plea bargain struck in 2013 — but made public only now — reveals the extraordinary steps they took to launder money flown out of Trinidad and Tobago.
US district court Judge William Kuntz asked Daryan about the “substantial profit” he made reselling tickets to games in 2006 and 2010. “Take your time,” urged the judge. “Take a drink of water. Slowly and loudly. Channel your inner Lord Vader, not your inner Woody Allen, OK?”
“It’s the price of aWest Indies accent,” responded Daryan, before explaining that, already under suspicion by Fifa for reselling tickets to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, he managed to secure tickets for the 2010 World Cup via his family — two of whom were Fifa officials — and resell them at a “substantial WHISTLEBLOWER: Daryan Warner has given testimony in a secret plea bargain in the US mark-up”. This admission adds to the mounting evidence of how Jack Warner and his family allegedly benefited financially from the 2010 World Cup.
US prosecutors claim Warner also sent a “family member” to fetch a briefcase stuffed with cash from a “high-ranking South African bid committee official” at a hotel in Paris and that Warner solicited a $10-million bribe from South Africa.
Warner, who declined an interview request from the Sunday Times this week, has denied soliciting a bribe.
But it now appears from various new court documents that Daryan was the man who acted as the bagman to collect the South African briefcase in Paris.
This seems to be clear from the transcript of evidence given by Warner’s former Fifa colleague Chuck Blazer, as well as the plea deal involving Daryan.
In the plea deal, US prosecutors made specific reference to his involvement in “aiding and abetting the receipt of a bribe or kickback payment made by the South African bid committee in connection with its bid to host the Fifa World Cup”.
When it came to the ticket sales, Daryan admitted that he “deposited cash into domestic banks” in the US between July and December 2011 in “amounts less than $10 000” to avoid the transactions being flagged for further scrutiny.
In a separate hearing before Kuntz, Daryll, a former Fifa development officer, admitted to doing the same.
Additional US court documents, reported on by the Financial Times, show that Daryan almost slipped up by making one deposit in euros at Chase Bank in New York after arriving from Trinidad. He was asked to produce identification because the exchange rate pushed the sum beyond $10 000. He asked the teller to give back à500, to avoid the transaction being recorded.
The brothers made more than 100 deposits at various banks during the five months, totalling more than $600 000.
In exchange for his evidence, US authorities agreed not to bring certain criminal charges against Daryan for disclosing his involvement in fraud and money laundering related to “aiding and abetting” the receipt of an alleged kickback from the South African bid committee and the sale of tickets.
Evidence under oath has also emerged of how the Warner family lied to secure a bond in 2005 to purchase a $990 000 apartment in Miami, Florida.
“The apartment was intended for use by my father, my brother and myself.
“We determined that I would be the one to purchase the apartment and that I would seek MONEY MAN: Former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner waits to sign in at the Arouca police station in Trinidad and Tobago this week as required under his bail agreement
It appears from new statements that Daryan acted as the bagman to collect the Paris briefcase
mortgage financing,” Daryll told Kuntz.
He did not qualify for a substantial loan but managed to secure a $690 000 bond after supplying false information about his income.
He supplied a fake work telephone number and “arranged with another individual to answer the telephone and falsely confirm details”.