Webb sentence hearing postponed again

(CNS): Jeff Webb, the former Cayman Islands Football Club and CONCACAF president who was charged in the 2015 FIFA scandal, has secured another delay in his sentencing hearing in New York for what is estimated to be the eleventh time. It is already clear that the one-time local football hero, who has handed over millions of dollars to the US authorities and assisted them in the case, is not going to jail. But the constant delays prevent the Cayman Islands from seeking his extradition for charges he faces here.

The sentencing hearing for Webb, who rose to the dizzy heights of global football management before being brought down in the FIFA corruption case, should have been sentenced in March this year. He pleaded guilty to racketeering and other charges in November 2015 in the wake of his arrest in Switzerland more than five years ago.

Court documents reveal that after the March date was postponed the sentencing hearing was scheduled to go before judge Pamela K. Chen in the Eastern District of New York in September.

Despite the serious charges, the former VP of FIFA has been cooperating in the ongoing case and has spent a significant period under house arrest at his home in Georgia, which means he will not go to jail.

The native Caymanian has not returned to Cayman since before his arrest in Zürich, along with several other FIFA officials and sports executives, when US federal agents moved in to round up the suspects in the now well documented corruption scandal.

Webb is unlikely to return voluntarily because of the charges against him here in two fraud cases, one relating to football administration and the other relating to his role in the CarePay corruption scandal at the hospital, in which he and his long time friend, Canover Watson, were accuse of skimming millions of dollars after securing a contract to supply a payment system to the hospital.

Therefore, the only way that Webb could be forced to face the charges here is through extradition. But while prosecutors in the Cayman Islands have previously indicated that they want to extradite Webb, until his case in the US is concluded, that is unlikely to happen.

Meanwhile, CNS understands that prosecutors here are seeking to speak with Webb about another local football corruption scandal.

Watson, the former Cayman Islands Football Association treasurer, and Bruce Blake, the suspended vice president of CIFA, were recently charged with various offences relating to a long-running Anti-Corruption Commission probe relating to financial discrepancies at the local football association, which also involves Webb, CNS has since learned.