Bank boss says Webb borrowed $240k for sports firm

Jeff Webb, a former CONCACAF president and former president of the Cayman Islands Football Association

(CNS): Former CIFA president, Jeffrey Webb, borrowed cash from Fidelity Bank on behalf of a sports firm he owned with Jack Warner, his predecessor at CONCACAF, with the help of Canover Watson, the court heard this week. Brett Hill, Fidelity’s chief executive, gave evidence in Watson’s trial that officials at the bank approved a loan in 2011 for US$240,000 to Webb, who was working at the bank at the time, for JD International.

That firm, which was owned by Webb, Warner and Costas Takkas, has also been embroiled in the ongoing international football corruption probes.

Jack Warner, former Trinidad politician, former CONCACAF president and disgraced FIFA official

The jurors heard Monday that Webb had sent questions from the bank about the loan to Watson for help in answering them and securing the money, which the bank was led to believe would be invested in AIS Cayman Ltd.

The prosecution alleges that AIS, which had won the lucrative CarePay contract with the hospital, was really owned by Watson and Webb, fronted by two sham directors. However, the crown maintains in its case against Watson and Webb that the money was never invested in AIS but was used instead to pay off another loan on a house that Webb owned in Atlanta, Georgia.

Costas Takkas, the former general secretary of CIFA

The loan was granted by the bank for three months and the cash went first into the AIS Cayman Ltd account at Fidelity, which was controlled by Webb, the only signatory on the account, and then on to his account with Wells Fargo in the US. Hill confirmed that the loan was paid in full after the three months.

When asked by lead prosecutor, Patrick Moran, Hill said he could not explain why Webb would have sent a blank Fidelity letterhead to Watson via email because that would be irregular.