According to former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, the “nightmare” that the years long request for extradition by the US had caused him to endure has finally ended. Warner has been resisting the extradition allegations of bribery, money laundering, and other fraud-related offenses.
Warner shared the news in reaction to an article published on January 27, 2024, which said that two people who were convicted of football corruption had those decisions overturned in September of last year by the US Supreme Court and a lower court.
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The US Supreme Court ruled, according to an article published by a renowned media house, that US prosecutors went too far in applying US laws against groups of people—many of whom were foreign nationals—who were accused of defrauding FIFA, another international organization with its headquarters located in Switzerland.
“My lawyers have told me that my nightmare is over, and I have every reason to believe what they have said. They are now working to pursue the matter further to see what redress I am entitled to. They have told me that my nightmare is over because the Supreme Court is not a court that you can appeal against — it is the final court in the US,” Warner was cited by the Trinidad Express from a recent radio conversation with sports analyst Andre Baptiste on i95.5FM.
Following the US Supreme Court’s decision, several former FIFA football officials—some of whom had to pay millions of dollars in fines and served jail sentences—are claiming that the bribery schemes for which they were found guilty are no longer crimes in the US.
They are now requesting payment for all their penalties as well as compensation for the time they were forced to serve in jail.
Warner added that he was always aware that the US government was going too far in the interview with Baptiste.
“I am in full agreement with the Supreme Court matter. I always knew that the US was wrong to attack and destroy FIFA and destroy people’s lives and so on just because they did not get a World Cup venue. It is utterly ridiculous for people to be imprisoned and to be charged [for] being a member of a private organization such as FIFA, and to be charged by the US Government for what they did or did not do to stay in FIFA.”
Warner noted, “I always knew that was an overreach, [an] overkill, and I think the Supreme Court has justified what my thoughts have been in the matter.”
The Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ court is scheduled to hear Warner’s extradition procedures later this month, according to the Saturday Express.
Nonetheless, the US government’s 2015 extradition warrant may be revoked in light of the US Supreme Court’s decision.
“I am feeling relieved. My life has been destroyed, my family’s life has been destroyed, and I have spent tons of money on this matter. All I did was to tell FIFA that it is time to change the paradigm of giving the World Cup to Europe and South America. I said to them, ‘Just go to the Middle East,’ ” he stated to Baptiste.
“It is this that has caused me to be where I am today. The irony is that people in the Middle East, thanks to my efforts and others, Qatar [which hosted the World Cup in 2022] has produced one of the best World Cups this world has ever seen. So, I feel vindicated in a sense for what I have done but the price that I have paid for that is overbearing,” Warner stated.
He continued by saying that he also wanted to bring up the matter of the millions of public dollars that the State had used to hire lawyers to have him extradited to the US.
“The US Government wants to have me extradited to the US? Then the US should engage lawyers here and spend their own money and not taxpayers’ money — of which part is mine.”
He added, “Here, you have a Government of Trinidad and Tobago spending taxpayers’ money to try to get a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago sent to the US.”
Warner stated that his lawyers had filed a Freedom of Information request with the Office of the Attorney General (AG) to ascertain precisely how much money had been disbursed to lawyers up to the time the extradition request was made.
He said that the State had only disclosed a portion of the data, claiming that at least $7.5 million had been spent.
“They said they could not release the rest of the information. That has forced us to take the AG to court, and we have engaged the AG in the matter because we feel that a full revelation must be made to the people of this country of what the Government has spent on a trial to get its citizen extradited to another country,” he noted.
The FIFA leaders were removed from a five-star hotel in Switzerland to face racketeering charges, while the US government raided regional offices in Miami as part of an attack on what it described as widespread and blatant corruption in the global governing body of football in May 2015.
US prosecutors laid out a broad case of corruption that depended on the evidence of insiders, some of whom decided to help in plea agreements, accusing the executives of football federations of ruining the sport for nearly 25 years by accepting US$150 million in bribes and pay-offs.
The FIFA leaders were removed from a five-star hotel in Switzerland to face racketeering charges, while the US government raided regional offices in Miami as part of an attack on what it described as widespread and blatant corruption in the global governing body of football in May 2015.
US prosecutors laid out a broad case of corruption that depended on the evidence of insiders, some of whom decided to help in plea agreements, accusing the executives of football federations of ruining the sport for nearly 25 years by accepting US$150 million in bribes and pay-offs.
