Former New York top cop Bernard Kerik, whose firm is contracted by Jack Warner to research crime in Trinidad and Tobago, could be facing federal charges in the United States.
By Juhel BrowneThose charges include tax evasion and wire tapping.
United National Congress deputy political leader Jack Warner hired the Kerik Group to establish what is being called the Kerik Commission to conduct a research and assessment exercise on the local crime situation over the next 12 months.
Warner decided to spend his own money on the initiative as part of his alternative plan to fight crime.
He could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Kerik has also been hired by the Government of Guyana as a security consultant for that country's President, Bharat Jagdeo.
The Washington Post yesterday reported that legal sources said during a recent meeting, federal prosecutors told Kerik's attorneys that they are preparing to charge him with filing false information to the government when US President George Bush had nominated him to the Cabinet in 2004.
The Post also reported that federal prosecutors are also prepared to charge Kerik with violating federal tax laws, alleging that he did not declare on his tax returns gifts he received while serving as New York's Corrections Commissioner.
The legal sources said the prosecutors are alleging that this included costly renovations to an apartment he had bought.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating loans Kerik received while he was in private business with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the sources said.
The Post reported the FBI is also investigating information that Kerik had allegedly omitted from a mortgage application.
The Post reported that last month, Kerik turned down an offer to plead guilty to federal charges that would have required him to serve prison time.
This new development concerning Kerik could have an impact on the US presidential campaign of Giuliani, who is now the Republican party's front runner.
Giuliani had endorsed Kerik to be the US Homeland Security adviser.
Kerik withdrew after allegations arose that he failed to pay taxes on an illegal immigrant whom he had hired as his nanny.
"The simple reality is that it is my responsibility - the background check should have been much more complete," Giuliani told Boston radio station WRKO. "And I apologized at the time to the President for making this mistake."
