Reuters: Sports News: Trinidad asks U.S. for information on FBI soccer fraud probe

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Trinidad asks U.S. for information on FBI soccer fraud probe Apr 1st 2013, 21:24 Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar looks out the window of a helicopter belonging to the country's special anti-crime unit before landing in Patna Village during a tour of areas affected by recent flooding August 3, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Andrea De Silva By Linda Hutchinson-Jafar and Mark Hosenball PORT OF SPAIN/WASHINGTON | Mon Apr 1, 2013 2:56pm EDT PORT OF SPAIN/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago has asked U.S. authorities for information about an FBI investigation into alleged corruption in international soccer involving the Caribbean country's national security minister. An exclusive Reuters report last week quoted U.S. law enforcement sources as saying Daryan Warner, the son of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, has become a "cooperating witness" in the FBI investigation. The probe is being led by a New York FBI squad that specializes in "Eurasian Organized Crime." Jack Warner is the former head of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football (CONCACAF) and previously served as a vice president of FIFA, soccer's global governing body. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing. The investigation, which also involves the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. tax agency, is looking into potential violations of American tax laws and anti-fraud statutes, including laws prohibiting wire fraud and mail fraud, the law enforcement sources said. After the publication of the Reuters story, opposition politicians in Trinidad and Tobago called for Warner, who as national security minister is in charge of Trinidad's military and police forces, either to resign or for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to dismiss him. David Abdulah, the head of the Movement for Social Justice party, a former coalition partner of the government, urged the prime minister to remove Warner from office. "If she does not, she will pay the political price for keeping him in the government," Abdulah said, describing the news reports on Warner as "very embarrassing" for the country. Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley said Warner should come forward and make an "honest statement" about the allegations. DIPLOMATIC CHANNELS Persad-Bissessar said she has instructed Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran and Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to use diplomatic channels to obtain details about the case. "It would be premature if not prejudicial for me to act without any official clarification or confirmation from the U.S. authorities on this controversial and sensitive matter," said Persad-Bissessar. The exact scope of the FBI investigation is not clear, U.S. law enforcement sources have said. The FBI has been examining more than $500,000 in payments made by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) over the past 20 years to an offshore company headed by U.S. soccer official Chuck Blazer. That was a period when Jack Warner was also head of the CFU, a position he held from the early 1980s until 2011. While declining to comment on any aspect of the investigation, Warner reiterated his long-standing denials of any wrongdoing and claimed he is being targeted by political opponents. "I do not think you know of any other politician who for the last three years has been maligned and who has been crucified as I have been," said Warner, who accused his critics of seeking to weaken Trinidad and Tobago's three-year-old coalition government. "The one objective in mind (is) to get rid of Jack Warner because there are those who believe that if you get rid of Jack Warner then you get rid of a major chunk or chink in the government's armor," Warner, who is head of one of Trinidad's four ruling political parties, recently told reporters. Neither Daryan Warner nor a Trinidadian lawyer representing the Warner family have responded to requests for comment. Persad-Bissessar has repeatedly stood by Warner since he quit his FIFA and CONCACAF positions in June 2011 after he was investigated as part of a bribery scandal linked to the failed campaign of former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar. Warner denied any involvement. U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the Trinidadian government's statements that it is seeking information about the FBI investigation. (Editing by Kevin Gray and Christopher Wilson) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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