FIFA Scandal: Political fallout continues to unfold as Jack Warner publishes more evidence

His secrets about FIFA are yet to be disclosed, but former FIFA vice president and also former National Security Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Jack Warner continues to dish out the evidence to support his claim that he spent money on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her 2010 election campaign.

The latest edition of Warner’s Sunshine newspaper has published an article with supporting copies of April 19 and May 25, 2010 cheques showing that the former United National Congress (UNC) chairman paid a total of TT$54,810 (US$8,667) for a three-month lease on a house for UNC leader Persad-Bissessar while she was campaigning.

The newspaper revealed that the St. Augustine property at which Persad-Bissessar and her sister, Wattie, stayed was leased because the then Opposition Leader had complained of being too tired from travelling from her home in the south of the country to join Warner on the UNC campaign trail in Trinidad’s east/west corridor.

According to the publication, in addition to leasing the secluded property from Your Move! Real Estate Limited, Warner paid for food and cable at the house.

Also in the publication is a purported June 7, 2015 email which Joanne Mora, the secretary of Warner’s company, Jamad Limited – with which the tenancy agreement was signed, sent to real estate broker Liane Ifill asking her if she recalled that her agency was used to get the rental property; as well as a reply from Ifill the following day stating simply, “Yes, I recall.”

Jamad Limited is the same company which paid just over TT$1.7 million (US$269,000) to Ross Advertising that handled the party’s election campaign.

The Trinidad Guardian today reported that Ifill had confirmed, in a telephone interview, that after being contacted by Mora, she suggested several options to Warner, some of which he viewed himself, before he settled on the St. Augustine property.

Persad-Bissessar has not yet responded to the article. She previously insisted on several occasions that neither she nor her UNC ever benefitted from Warner’s money.

Meantime, the Sunshine article promised that more disclosures about Warner funding the UNC between 2001 and 2010 would be forthcoming.

Warner left the UNC and formed the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) in April 2013. He still leads the ILP. -(CMC)