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A company has been temporarily barred from recouping a $1.5 million debt from former government minister Jack Warner. Delivering an oral ruling at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Appellate Judge Nolan Bereaux granted Warner and his companies, Dr Joao Havelenge Centre of Excellence, Renraw Investments and CCAM and Company, a stay of a lawsuit brought by Real Time Systems Limited and its owner Krishna Lalla.
The stay will remain pending the determination of Warner’s appeal over a judgement of High Court Judge Frank Seepersad, who ruled in Lalla’s company’s favour in May. The appeal is expected to come up for hearing on March 22 next year. The lawsuit centred around a series of payments made to Warner’s companies between October and November 2007.
Lalla, who also owned contracting company Super Industrial Services (SIS), claimed that the money constituted a loan, which the former Fifa vice-president was expected to repay using US$10 million that he was expected to receive from his former employer, the following year. The money was never repaid. Warner denied the claim, as he alleged the money was campaign financing for the United National Congress (UNC) in 2007 general election. Warner then held the post of UNC chairman. In his judgement, Seepersad said all the evidence, including emails between Lalla and Warner, suggested the money was transferred as part of a loan.
“On a balance of probabilities, this court is of the view that Mr Warner may have wanted to portray an image to the UNC that he was its main financier, but to do so he sourced finance from Mr Lalla on the basis and expectation that the sums advanced would be repaid upon his receipt of an anticipated payment of a US$10 million Fifa payment, due in February 2008,” Seepersad said in his ruling.
The T&T Guardian understands that Lalla has other litigation against Warner over similar loans which are still pending. Warner was represented by John Jeremie, SC, Keith Scotland, Asha Watkins-Montserin, Raisa Caesar and Jacqueline Chang. Lalla and his company were represented by Neal Bisanth and Lydia Mendonca.
The lawsuit is one of several involving Warner currently before the courts. Warner, 73, is also challenging his extradition to the US, where he is facing 12 fraud-related charges, racketeering and engaging in illegal wire transfers which occurred during his two-decade tenure in Fifa.
Warner was among a group of former Fifa executives implicated in an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice. He is challenging the procedure adopted by the Office of the Attorney General (AG) in signing off on the US’s request for his extradition, made in May 2015. He is also facing litigation from Fifa over the ownership of the Dr Joao Havelenge Centre of Excellence in Macoya.