PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – Jack Warner said he will sue the Trinidad Express newspaper and local journalist Lasana Liburd over their reporting about his handling of funds slated for Haiti reconstruction efforts following the catastrophic earthquake in the Caribbean nation two years ago. The former FIFA vice president has been accused of transferring just US $60,000 of a total US $750,000 pledged by FIFA and South Korean Chung Mong-joon, a former executive member of the sport’s World governing body, for rebuilding projects following the earthquake that killed over 300,000 people.
In the suit, Warner’s lawyers contend that the T&T Minister of Works gave Haitian officials the full US $750,000 and claim that the allegations reported by the Express and Liburd have caused Warner “serious distress and embarrassment”.
Warner’s lawyers have also argued that the reports were also false, malicious and misleading and calculated to damage their client’s reputation.
The former Caribbean Football Union and CONCACAF president is seeking a “full and unequivocal public retraction” and the “payment of substantial damages…to demonstrate the baselessness of the allegation and compensation for the injury to his reputation and the distress caused to him”.
FIFA has frozen all funding to Trinidad & Tobago while the matter is investigated and the T&T Football Federation said it planned to sue Warner to recover millions of dollars in funds, including those slated for Haiti.
The T&TFF said it had turned over management of its accounts to Warner and is seeking an audit of them.
Warner resigned from a number of leadership posts in the sport last June 20 to avoid a bribery probe, following the cash-for-votes scandal that rocked the sport in the Caribbean.