Watson charged in football conspiracy

(CNS): Local businessman and former CIFA treasurer Canover Watson (49) has been charged with conspiracy to defraud and converting criminal property in a financial crime case relating to the local and regional football associations stretching back to 2014. CNS understands that former CONCACAF president Jeff Webb is a co-conspirator in the case, along with Charmaine Moss, who was charged yesterday.

The fallout from the corruption surrounding Webb continues more than four years after he and other football officials and sports company executives from around the world were arrested in Switzerland, part of a major FIFA corruption scandal.

While police have released very few details about this latest probe, it involves the alleged misuse of funds from CONCACAF locally by Webb and what the police say were his conspirators, Moss, who was a volunteer with CIFA, and Watson, Webb’s one-time close friend and business associate.

While Watson was also convicted in the hospital CarePay scandal and served around a third of his sentence, Webb, his alleged partner in crime, has never been held to account in that case. Webb remains in the United States, where he has still not yet been sentenced in relation to his convictions in the wider global FIFA probe by the US justice department.

Meanwhile, here in the Cayman Islands, Watson and former CIFA VP, Bruce Blake, have also been charged with several counts relating to other allegations of corruption and fraud surrounding an Anti-Corruption Commission inquiry into CIFA and the creation of its headquarters and main football field.

Webb is said to have been at the heart of that conspiracy as well. However, he has not been charged in either of these cases despite being named on indictments.

CNS has contacted the relevant authorities asking if there are plans to extradite Webb and we are awaiting a response.

Watson and Moss are both due to appear in court on 7 January.