CIFA executive to meet as scandal rolls on
Bruce Blake
(CNS): The first vice president of the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA), Bruce Blake, has confirmed that the executive committee of the local football body will be meeting Monday night and plans to issue a press release Tuesday in relation to the FIFA investigation and CIFA President Jeffrey Webb’s arrest in Switzerland. Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority said it was aware of the allegations in the US Department of Justice indictment against one of its licensees and would “act appropriately” under the law.
As the international press turned its attention to the Cayman Islands over the weekend — not just Webb’s part in the alleged corruption scandal but the local institutions that may have been involved in the bribes and named in the US enquiry as well — Cayman Finance also issued a statement, saying it was confident the Cayman authorities would cooperate with the international investigation where required.
CONCACAF confirmed Monday that its executive committee had provisionally banned Enrique Sanz from participation in any CONCACAF related activities. Sanz acted as general secretary with Webb until 28 May, when he was placed on leave. He has also been provisionally suspended from all football related activities “at the national and international levels by decision of the Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, pending a decision on allegations made against him”.
Although Webb was also provisionally sacked by CONCACAF last week in the wake of the revelations and the dawn raid by Swiss authorities on behalf of the US authorities, the Cayman Islands Football Association has taken no action over his role as the local president. CIFA has remained silent over the shocking allegations and made no comment at all regarding Webb’s arrest and his current situation facing extradition to the US in the massive football corruption probe.
Blake was understood to have been in Switzerland last week and was likely the person who stood in for Webb and cast CIFA’s vote during the presidential vote and re-election of Sepp Blatter. CIFA has not yet confirmed if the local association supported Blatter.
With the world’s media focusing in on the Cayman institutions allegedly used in the transfer of some of the bribes that officials are accused of taking and football marketing executives are accused of paying, Cayman Finance CEO Jude Scott said Monday he was “saddened to learn of allegations of corruption and money laundering among senior leaders and officials within FIFA”.
Scott added, “Our information at this time is limited to that which is in the public domain, however, we are confident the relevant international investigating authorities will follow due process and the appropriate outcomes will be reached. As a jurisdiction that consistently upholds good governance and transparency that robustly meets globally implemented standards for regulation and cross border cooperation, we are confident that the Cayman Islands authorities will provide effective support to international authorities, to the extent that further cooperation might be required from the Cayman Islands.”
CIMA also finally commented on the issue and the fact that Fidelity bank was cited in the indictment.
“The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (the Authority) is aware of the allegations which have been made by Swiss and US Federal authorities regarding a number of officials of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and a bank regulated by the Authority,” it said in a short statement. “The Authority takes these matters very seriously and in respect of the allegations relating to one of our licensees, we will act appropriately, dispassionately and in accordance with our obligations under the law. However, at this stage it would be inappropriate and legally impermissible for us to make any further comment or statement on these matters.”
CIMA made no mention however of other offshore companies registered here and cited as being used to transfer the proceeds of the alleged crimes in the US indictment.
Category: Crime, World News
Replacing bruce for jeff is one and the same. What a joke!!
Bruce Blake will have to admonish his friends and cohorts Jeff Webb and Canover Watson on behalf of CIFA, CONCACAF, and FIFA but welcome them as potential clients.
What is the collective noun for Blatter-voting junket monkeys?
Shitlords?
Well, folks…Sepp Blatter has resigns…
Blatter-voting junket monkeys.
And now Blatter has resigned. Words cannot express …
Now da funny!,
Here’s the indictment folks: http://www.justice.gov/opa/file/450211/download
There is no plausible deniability to the evidence presented here. Webb is not going to enjoy the light of day for a long time. There are others that will go down too – but the wishful fantasy that there has been some kind of error, or misunderstanding, or hope of innocence is long out the window. No Johnny Cochrane can maneuver him out of this one. There are no gloves that won’t fit. CIFA is a week and half late in taking the most obvious and only acceptable stance on the topic. The fact that it takes Cayman so long to do the obvious right thing makes this territory look horrible. We do it to ourselves.
That’s a lot of money doled out, in exchanged for favors — not based on competition, but on partnerships. Still waiting to read where competing bids were tendered for a chance at a contract. Everyone was illegally chasing the money; building clientele while cutting others out of any deals.
This indictment reads exactly like everyday Cayman business (lol), where business success is limited to just a selected few [who conspire and co-conspire for personal gains].
CORRUPTION!!!!!!!!!!
OAN: Sepp Blatter is stepping done. Finally.
Cline Glidden was there too according to reports. He was called to the bar in March 2015. That’s not even 3 months PQE. But he knows all about setting up a soccer court of arbitration?
Cline Glidden, the most successful Jr. Associate in the history of law. Now it all makes sense.
Can anyone clarify Blake’s connection to football? Did he ever play or coach? My suggestion would be to start fresh with coaches/players who actually have proven to benefit the Cayman Islands football program and have spent years sweating at the football pitch training our youth! They may actually have the game at heart.
What is really funny is that Mark Scotland was with Jeff Webb when it all went down over sea. So, Cindy Scotland didn’t know a thing??? Great cima boss!
Conflict of interest in the highest order!
cima official – spouse of concacaf /fifa – spouse present in Zurich.
For cifa record, all attendees should give a written ‘travel brief’ account of activities, spending, voting, etc.
Cindy Scotland should be forced to resign or volunteer to resign. She is the head of CIMA and her husband is involved in this mess! Did she profit from his involvement? Seems to be a very large conflict of interest. What a disgrace.
How Cindy suppose to investigate Mark? After he drop the kids to school??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX-gu9pdKyg
Cayman voting at 54.30.
Get Webb out!
Get Blake out!
…
the whole of CIFA needs to be replaced.
Breaks my heart that the kids who spent days fundraising were just helping to build pools in Atlanta.
What a tangled web! No pun intended!
I sure hope that Bruce Blake and another attendee, Mark Scotland were not also staying at $4000.00/night hotels on our dime!!!!
Yes Bruce Blake the funds lawyer who is cited as a sports lawyer on his profile….conflict much as he would have had insight into legal work and just taken it for himself. SMH
9.22, oh the conviction of the blissfully ignorant!!
More like too close to home, if u get the jest (sp)……..
CIFA executive must all resign for that organization to have any credibility. A full audit is required immediately. Start over and do it properly focusing on youth programs.
SMH the silence from government is deafening. Cayman Islands is under attack from all quarters getting pummeled by the international media yet the usual ostrich in the sand approach is being deployed by the PPM.
CIMA, FIFA and CIFA all stink to the bone !!
BREAKING NEWS: Sepp Blatter, FIFA President Resigns Amid Scandal
I hope he tells us if he or anyone else from Cayman was interviewed by the FBI in Switzerland, what the questions were, and the answers….
Please tell us that no one else from Cayman involved with football has these million dollar mansions in Georgia or elsewhere in the States.
At the very minimum , Mr. Webb should be ‘Provisionally Suspended’ from CIFA as a show of both acknowledgement of the seriousness of the charges and arrest of the FIFA representatives ( including Webb) for & on behalf of Cayman as a whole, as well as football as a sport, and a demonstration that CIFA as a body does what is necessary for its continuation in the promotion of the sport ,free of corruption. If Webb rues the day and comes out smelling like roses…acquitted of any & all charges , CIFA can re-instate him if it so chooses.
To do otherwise sends a signal , that CIFA condones corrupt behaviour by a leading member. The world right now is looking very closely at signals in this affair.
Hasn’t he been banned by FIFA from all football activities? How is he still CIFA president? By not removing him from the post (at least temporarily as you say) isn’t CIFA non-compliant with FIFA’s directives?
By the mere fact that CIFA has been silent for an entire week (while JW was arrested, banned from FIFA and removed as president of CONMEBOL) sends a poor message internationally about Cayman’s tolerance for corruption!
More heads are going to roll as the secretive world of Cayman football is revealed to be a hotbed of suspicious financial activities. The finance firms, banks and law firms that these people worked for are going dig into records and will probably find dirt. It’s just a matter of time. Let us hope Bruce Blake did NOT vote for Blatter.
He’s a follower not a leader
Really, CIMA did not act dispassionately when it decided to take over Caledonian based on very weak charges and little or no evidence. I guess the rules are different for “Local” institutions.
I think that CIMA did act “dispassionately” in the Caledonian bank case. From the newspaper report the judge seems to have felt that no one — not even the bank’s lawyers stood up for the bank’s rights but simply caved. So apparently did CIMA, if I am reading this correctly. Seems to me a little more passion for the rights of the bank was called for, rather than allowing the SEC to ride roughshod over the bank.
That aside, yet again we have this ugly the clean-as-the-driven-snow expats (and institutions) are given a hard time while the tainted Caymanians (and institutions) go Scott free. I just wish we would stop this. I am sure that CIMA will respond within the legal requirements for the institutions now in questions as it did for Caledonian — except that in the case of Caledonian it may — not enough information to be sure — have been so anxious to comply with the Big U.S. Overlords that it may have — can’t judge without adequate information — trampled on some rights.
This is always the danger in international compliance that rights can be compromised and mistakes made at the expense of the targeted institution. I hardly think that CIMA was, however, differentiating in treatment as to whether a bank was locally owned and operated or not. In any event, Caledonian has been here forever — I am inclined to think it and its major shareholders had earned the right to be considered local, though I could stand corrected on that.
On another matter, I am glad to see that Jude Scott and CIMA are making comments. It is possible to comment without condemning or condoning. Good job, Jude. We need to see more of this. I saw a similar posture by the Minister in charge of legal affairs in Trinidad. He did not and should not have commented on Jack Warner’s guilt or otherwise — he just said what the procedures were being followed in complying wih international requests for information.
Our Premier cannot be expected to say anything of much substance about the FIFA affair — CIFA is a private agency, not controlled by the government. They must take actions within their body, outside of any directives from the government. If requests for legal assistance comes from international bodies, those requests have no connection with the political arm of governemnt and should not. The politicians have nothing to do with any investigation into this matter. They simply do not have the power under the constitution to do anything or the information on which to make any judgments. Under the Constitution, I believe, compliance issues are the purview of the Attorney General and are decided based on law and the legalities of the case. On balance, the best position is to say what the Premier said — he is monitoring the situation.
Jude Scott of Cayman Finance. Is that the Cayman Finance that is housed in the Fidelity Bank building and whose former CEO ran HSBC in Cayman ? You couldn’t make this stuff up. Mark Scotland/Cindy Scotland. LOL
CNS, is this article the premier press release on this scandal ?