Embattled Trinidad and Tobago Member of Parliament Jack Warner, political leader of the Independent Liberal Party and publisher of the weekly Sunshine newspaper, was released on TT$2.5 million or US$395,000 bail on 12 bribery and racketeering charges on Thursday, May 28 2015.
Warner, a former FIFA vice-president and former president of CONCACAF spent the night in prison after his attorney made an unsuccessful attempt to secure his bail before the court closed at 4:00 p.m on Wednesday.
However, his attorneys were able to secure his release the next day (Thursday).
Warner, 72, gave himself up to the police after he learnt that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had issued a provisional warrant for his arrest on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a 24 year-old soccer scheme, while he was Fifia vice-president and CONCACAF president.
Later in the day he appeared before a magistrate in the Port of Spain Court to face extradition proceedings to the United States to answer the charges. He was placed on TT$2.5 million bail with conditions that he surrenders his passport and report twice a week to the police station near where he lives in Arouca, East Trinidad.
The United States Justice Department now has 60 days to produce a formal request for his extradition.
The case has been adjourned to July 7, 2015.
Warner is among 14 powerful global football figures who are facing similar charges.
He was vice-president of FIFA since 1983, the world governing body and former president of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF).
Warner resigned from FIFA in 2011, at which time FIFA had terminated its investigations of him into allegations of bribes and kickbacks in exchange for media deals associated with the major cocker tournaments.
