Beleaguered former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner has threatened to sue a Trinidadian journalist for defamation after the journalist reported on Warner’s alleged role in a growing financial scandal involving a missing half-million euros meant for Haiti’s football federation.

Speaking to the International Press Institute (IPI), the journalist, Lasana Liburd, called the threat an act of “intimidation,” designed to deter other members of the press from following the story.

The Sunday Times (U.K.) recently quoted Haitian football officials as saying they had received only US$60,000 (€45,000) out of a total US$750,000 (€566,000) jointly donated by FIFA and a South Korean businessman, Chung Mong-Joon. FIFA confirmed to media outlets that it had wired the funds—intended as emergency aid to the earthquake-stricken nation—in early 2010 to a bank account controlled by Warner, then president of the North, Central American, and Caribbean football association (CONCACAF).

Liburd continued to investigate allegations that Warner had mishandled the funds in a series of articles for a Trinidadian news website, Wired868.com. Warner is a well-known public figure in Trinidad and Tobago, currently serving as the country’s Minister for Works and Development.

Trinidadian media reported last week that Warner was planning to sue Liburd for libel and had retained the services of British barrister William McCormick.

According to Wired868.com, Warner appeared to be angered by a tweet sent by the website that linked him to the scandal. Warner, who has categorically denied misappropriating aid money intended for Haiti, was quoted in local media reports as saying: “The message [posted by Liburd] was re-tweeted by numbers of equally deranged and malicious persons who never checked Liburd’s claim for its veracity.”

He added, “I am thoroughly disgusted by the level of malice and nastiness some persons resort to and have decided that I can no longer tolerate the continued lies and wrongful allegations permanently levied against me by people who consider themselves to be above the law.”

Liburd told IPI that Warner has threatened him with a defamation suit several times over the past 10 years but has never initiated legal action. At the time of this statement, Warner had not yet filed charges in this case either. The journalist said Warner’s latest threat was a “frivolous way for him to avoid tackling the issue.”

In the coming months, IPI plans to work with various Caribbean governments, including that of Trinidad and Tobago, as part of a campaign to abolish criminal-defamation laws across the region.

IPI will also hold its annual congress this year in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, in June.

FIFA, unsatisfied with the lack of explanation for the money’s disappearance, has frozen funding to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF), to which Warner previously served as “special adviser,” according to news reports. The global football governing body also announced earlier it would suspend Warner’s pension payments. Warner resigned as a FIFA vice president last year just as a FIFA-led bribery investigation involving him was set to begin.

The TTFF last week released a statement accepting responsibility for the missing funds, but set the blame squarely on Warner, Wired868 reported. The group said Warner had requested the funds to be diverted to an account separate from the one that governs day-to-day expenses – and one over which the TTFF had given Warner, as special adviser, authority.

The statement added that the TTFF did not know what had become of the money and that it, like FIFA, was awaiting an explanation from Warner. “We never questioned his authority or actions and are now in a position of despair as we are starved of funds by FIFA until full disclosure, which we are unable to provide without Mr. Warner’s input,” the TTFF said.

Liburd says he has given Warner plenty of opportunities to tell a different side to the story. Just one day after the media reported the lawsuit threat, Liburd addressed a letter to Warner urging him to respond with information on where the half-million euros went so that the journalist could “state your version of the accounts in my subsequent stories.” Liburd told IPI that the letter, in addition to several phone calls, has gone unanswered.