Watson and Blake jailed in CIFA fraud case
(CNS): Former CIFA and CONCACAF executives Canover Watson and Bruce Blake were both sent to jail by Chief Justice Margaret Ramsay-Hale on Wednesday, following their conviction in October last year in relation to a football fraud.
While Watson was handed an eight-year term, reflecting his leading role in the fraud and money laundering, Bruce Blake was jailed for two years for false accounting.
Although Blake’s lawyers had urged the court to suspend his time behind bars, and despite his previous clean record and other significant personal mitigation, the chief justice said the “gravity of the offending” warranted an immediate custodial sentence.
However, since Watson had been convicted of a long list of serious offences and had previously been convicted in relation to the CarePay case, there was never much doubt that he was facing a fairly long time behind bars, especially given the view the judge took about the level of harm caused and the culpability he had for the crimes he committed.
As a result, both men’s bail was revoked and they were taken into custody.
As she handed down the sentences, the chief justice noted the “disappointment” of the whole country for what the men had done. She said they were “the best of Cayman” and the “hopes of a nation” who had been community leaders but had squandered their potential. “We are so disappointed,” she added.
CJ Ramsay-Hale set out in detail the reasons for the prison time she had allocated to both men for each of the offences for which they were convicted. She also noted the aggravating factor of the impact of what they had done on the wider jurisdiction, the harm to the financial services sector and the breach of trust committed by both men.
The charges were that Watson had submitted $1.5 million worth of invoices to the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) for equipment that was either never supplied or was supplied at overinflated prices. He had partnered with a Pakistan-based manufacturing company to supply the gear but had also set up a number of shell companies using similar names, which were then used to launder the money.
Watson, with Blake’s help, was also accused of using the bank accounts of the Cayman Islands Football Association, for which he was treasurer at the time, to move the money through Cayman by creating loans to CIFA, which were then turned into sponsorship deals.
But following a lengthy and complex trial, there are still a number of unanswered questions surrounding the case, including the involvement of Jeffery Webb, a former FIFA VP and president of CONCACAF and CIFA, and CONCACAF general secretary Enrique Sanz, who were both found guilty of accepting huge bribes over competitions and sponsorship during the global FIFA scandal. Neither of them have been charged in this case.
Although the case against Watson was based on the idea that he had effectively stolen $1.5 million from CONCACAF through false invoices, he was not charged with theft but with secret commissions. CONCACAF never filed a complaint alleging that they had been a victim of theft, and it was Sanz who signed off on the invoices that Watson had presented.
But based on the idea that Watson, who was still at the time a close business associate of Webb, had defrauded CONCACAF, the crown’s case was that he then set about laundering the money by using offshore accounts based in Panama and, ultimately, the local CIFA accounts.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Meanwhile, Canover approaches HMP Northward’s governor with a proposal for some new prison uniforms from Pakistan.
Good.
They stole millions $$ from poor football kids throughout the CONCACAF Region. From Canada and USA, to the Caribbean, Central America etc!
Shameful. And Jeff Webb is even worse.
Still hiding out
A lot more is in Cayman, hope these two now sing as Jeff did for the US and let us really do just justice to those that benefited from illegal funds.
They would not have been able to do it in the first place, without the complacency of the Government. Hello!?
How can a person just write a letter, and then have a million dollars delivered the next day?
You must be new.
Ha Ha Ha.. DAH Wa ya get…
Greedy…
Hard to understand why they didn’t go directly to jail after the verdict. It was a sure thing they would get sentenced to jail, yet they get to wander around free for another six months. There was a risk they would run off. The judges need to get serious about their treatment of criminals.
She’s thrown people in jail immediately for cannabis. SMH
and Cayman can now come off the grey list of AML!
You’re funny in ho so many ways … Cayman will not come out of the lists until the whole financial industry has zipped the bags never to return. Already a lot of smart money has been moving to Singapore and other venues than Cayman…
You wish! This is tokenism, like charging illegal gambling operators with money laundering their proceeds. Its a low scale, comparatively simple fraud, and one that had zero to do with the financial services sector. Successfully prosecute someone using Cayman vehicles for fraud or for laundering, or a high profile political corruption case, and you might get FATF’s attention. But turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
let us hope that is enough!
there seem yo be a lot of private health facilities in cayman…which is good….. hhhmmm…hope they truly making profits….just saying….hhhmmm
Restaurants?
Retail stores?
i thought they were just offering ‘financial services’???
They WERE offering financial services!….. For themselves. It’s called “theft”.
There must be a lot of people offering financial services in our government.
Consultation fees.
caymanians and money laundering!!!!…..never!
Forget the money laundering… they were just stealing a few million for themselves. Is anyone surprised? If so, why? It seems to be the Caymanian way of doing business. Look at the Cayman leaders for the last 20 years! ………… I have no love for most of their actions.
They Jaicans.
ALL of them AIN’T!
No. Just Watson and Webb. Blake I am not so sure.
You mean Watson and Blake. Webb is Caymanian.
They ran the opaque CIFA invoicing scam a second time with a South American equipment supplier – hurriedly demanding that National Teams return their Pakistani kits. Have the emails.
Bruces sentence should have bene suspended. Hes a good guy! and I believe him when he says he was used!!
Stupid is as stupid does.
He was also a member of the Cayman Bar and needed to be held to a higher standard so the sentence is appropriate. When will he be disbarred?
Do they REALLY disbar Caymanian lawyers? Please write in the names of the ones you know were disbarred in the last 100 years.
He’s a lawyer and would have known better. Good guy has nothing to do with it. Northward is full of dishonest good guys.
He’s also an account too. Multitalented fella.
Watson and Blake you stole from children!
You’re the worst of the worst!
Hey look on the bright side, while they are in prison maybe they can organize the other prisoners into a football league and they can get entry fees from them. Maybe even organize a game against the guards like the longest yard movie!
Or help other inmates manage their finances, while skimming a bit over time, like in Shawshank Redemption?
Oh yea and they can get a betting pool going on the match as well!
Does anyone know the spread on the game?
How long shall this continue?!!! Woe be unto evildoers!
My mind doesn’t work well sometime….. but similar scams have been around forever here in our little islands. This just happened to be some fairly large figures that were exposed. Many others get slipped under the rug.
True!!! That is why the rugs are replaced every few years!
Wasn’t Blake Maples’ CFO for 20 years or so?
Tryin’ to keep the big money rolling in..
Not true at all.
Blake was Chief Financial Controller of Maples. Check the facts.
Thanks to the judge for being firm. Watson especially is a real slimy piece of work. The mess that CIFA has been through will set the territory back a generation or two. Well done dickheads.
These clowns will be back scamming soon enough. At least Canover got decent time, but 2 years for Blake? SMH.
Watson is appealing and the Judge knew he would so therefore she failed in giving him an adequate sentence. He should have been jailed for 15 years considering this is he second go around.
He and his family are all in denial!
Probably will get to run the Cayman Department of Sports next!
Young Caymanian leadership at its finest. Someone should give Canover a prestigious award!
Can put a shelf in his cell at Northward for the YCLA statue.
I’m sure the Govt bid process has already started.
If they wanted less time they would have given us Jeff.
Wow. Stunned that justice was served. Stunned. The system here is so broken. I almost don’t believe it
Kudos to the CJ!
Two years for Blake? That’s it? The Englishman got 3.5 and he paid it all back with interest. Definitely some racial bias at play here.
Another Englishman however got a slap on the wrist for “deception” after being caught trying to defraud . Anyone else would be in jail as he should have been.
They are being blamed because it is all racily motivated.
Free them both!
Who you going to blame?
Jeff Webb
And two others, who shall remain unnamed.
We all know who they are.
But is that really true?
Bozo the Clown & Big Bird
What about Chucky Cheese?
Blacks and Buju.
Ghost-busters!