Fifa's Jack Warner 'diverted $750,000 from Haiti victims fund for his personal use'

US investigates new allegations against the former Fifa vice president

Former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner addresses the audience during a meeting of his Independent Liberal Party in Marabella, South Trinidad (Reuters)

The former Fifa official Jack Warner has been investigated by the FBI for allegedly diverting funds away from the Haiti aid effort, it has been reported.

According to the BBC, US prosecutors have drawn up papers which allege that Warner personally received $750,000 raised in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

The money was donated by Fifa and the Korean Football Association, and reportedly went into a bank account personally administered by Warner in his then-capacity of president of Concacaf, the football confederation for North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Claims about the Haiti fund, which comprised of $250,000 from Fifa and half a million dollars from South Korea, were first made by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) in 2012, after Warner had stood down in the midst of a probe by the Fifa Ethics Committee.

The TTFF then claimed that the money was paid into one of its accounts that was only controlled by Warner himself in his capacity as a special adviser.

And the US Justice Department now alleges that the money was placed in that account “at Warner’s direction” and that it was ultimately put to his “personal use”.

Warner has been indicted by the US authorities as part of its broad racketeering probe into Fifa, and charged with corruption and money laundering.

The former Fifa vice president said at the time of the TTFF’s 2012 accusations that he “has nothing to answer to anybody”, adding: “Who wants to make allegations, make allegations.”

He continues to deny any wrongdoing, and claims to have evidence of an “avalanche” of secrets about the misconduct of others at Fifa which will be released in the event of his death.