Evidence ends in Watson case

Canover Watson

(CNS): After almost two months in the courtroom listening to the CarePay corruption case, the jury has now heard all the live evidence that will be presented by both the crown and the defence. Canover Watson called just one witness Tuesday on his own behalf. This was to support his claim that he had received some cash from Jeffrey Webb through AIS Cayman Ltd to cover the cost of work done by his construction company and not, as the crown claims, because it was money owed to Watson as an owner of the firm that won the hospital payment contract.

Ricky Scarlett, Watson’s foreman in his construction firm TCB, testified that he had done work for Webb at specific times at various properties to justify certain payments that had gone to Watson from the AIS account. The witness said he had not heard of AIS before the trial but he admitted doing work on the AIS office and receiving three cheques from the firm.

No other witnesses, such as then health minister Mark Scotland; the Jamaican owner of AIS, Doug Halsall; Peter Campbell, who Watson claims bought shares in AIS; or his former PA Miriam Rodrigues were called to support Watson’s account after he spent more than a week on the stand attempting to explain the mountain of documentary and data evidence that the crown says demonstrates that Watson is guilty of corruption.

The case is now expected to resume on Thursday, when Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Patrick Moran will pull together the crown’s case against Watson in his closing speech. That will be followed by Trevor Burke QC, Watson’s defence attorney, who will offer an answer to the charges on behalf of his client.

Once the lawyers speak for the last time, the judge is expected to summarise the whole case and direct the jury early next week before the six women and one man are sent to deliberate on their verdict.

The case has been long and complex, and while the crown called several witnesses, the case rests very heavily on the paper and electronic trail left by Watson and his business partner, Jeffrey Webb, which prosecutors say shows Watson was a beneficial owner of the company that won a lucrative payment and verification contract with the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority while Watson was chair of its board of directors.

The case has taken numerous twists and turns and is interwoven with the FIFA scandal, in which Webb has already been convicted in the US on racketeering charges. Although charged in this case as well, given his current circumstances, Webb did not stand trial with his friend, Canover Watson.

However, Watson has indicted that much of the evidence the crown says shows his own guilt was down to him assisting and doing favours for Webb, who was a beneficial owner in AIS and Doug Halsall’s real local partner in the hospital contract. Watson told the court he believed that Webb had used Eldon Rankin and Joscelyn Morgan as ‘sham directors’, as described by the crown, to cover up his involvement because of his acrimonious divorce.

Watson has persistently denied the allegation that he is the second beneficial owner of AIS Cayman or that he received any financial gain from the contract, which he steered through the procurement process and appeared to be intimately involved with on a day-to-day basis while he was the board chair.

Watson has also described incriminating spreadsheets that appear to show profits from AIS going into other businesses Watson had with Webb or other people as speculative projections and “doodling”. He has blamed Webb for numerous documents found on his computer, including evidence suggesting the men were involved in money laundering the profits from AIS in the US.

Watson has also pointed the finger as his former PA, Miriam Rodrigues, who was charged in the case but acquitted by the judge at the halfway stage, for making administrative mistakes that made him appear to have created AIS Cayman Ltd and to have doctored the contract between the firm and government to manipulate money from the health ministry.

He has also persistently claimed that it was the health minister at the time, Mark Scotland, who wanted AIS to get the contract and the procurement process was merely lip-service. Watson also puts his direct involvement in the business dealings of AIS as part of his directive from the minister to keep the contract on track and to act as Halsall’s point-man in Cayman.