Tag: Bruce Blake
Watson’s jail time cut by year, conviction stands
(CNS): Canover Watson will be serving twelve months less in jail than expected after the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal cut his eight-year term to seven last week in relation to his conviction in a $1.5 million CONCACAF fraud. However, his appeal against conviction was rejected. CICA President Sir John Golding said Watson’s convictions for […]
Lawyer argues Watson conviction ‘politically expedient’
(CNS): Andrew Trollope KC told the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal on Thursday that the crown’s case against Canover Watson was directly connected to and influenced by the government’s goal to get the Cayman Islands removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list and the conviction is unsafe. The UK-based lawyer argued that the […]
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 […]
Lawyers urge leniency for Watson and Blake
(CNS): Attorneys representing Canover Watson (52) and Bruce Blake (51) urged leniency for their clients on Thursday as they argued that the convictions against the two men in a football-related fraud were not the most serious crimes of their kind, as prosecutors had contended. Watson is facing a potentially long sentence after he was convicted […]
Football execs found guilty in fraud case
(CNS): Canover Watson has been found guilty of all charges against him in the football fraud case, while his colleague and friend, Bruce Blake, has been found guilty of two of the four charges against him for his part in the scam against CONCACAF. After a twelve-week trial, the jury returned their unanimous verdict on […]
Jury deliberates complex Watson-Blake case
(CNS): Ten men and women who have spent the last twelve weeks poring over mountains of documents and listening to witness evidence, in person and via video link, arguments from three lawyers and a detailed direction from the judge finally began their deliberations Thursday over the fate of Canover Watson and Bruce Blake. The two […]
Attorneys battle over truth in Watson-Blake case
(CNS): Canover Watson and Bruce Blake are both liars, prosecuting counsel Eloise Marshall KC told a jury this week as she summed up the crown’s case against the two men, who are accused of scamming $1.5 million from the regional football association, CONCACAF, and of laundering the cash almost a decade ago. But Dapinder Singh […]
Blake denies laundering Watson’s ‘stolen’ cash
(CNS): Bruce Blake, a former football executive with both CIFA and CONCACAF, has denied money laundering and false accounting in relation to a scheme where, prosecutors say, he helped his colleague Canover Watson hide more than $1.5 million, the proceeds of scam invoices for football kit. Blake claimed the work he did for Canover Watson […]
‘I’m innocent’ claims Watson after week on stand
(CNS): Former local business leader and regional football executive Canover Watson told a jury that he was the innocent party in the prosecution’s $1.5 million football fraud case against him and his former CIFA and CONCACAF colleague, Bruce Blake. After a week giving evidence on his own behalf, Watson accused anti-corruption investigators of bias and […]
Auditors flagged $1.2M unsecured CIFA ‘loans’
(CNS): A director with Rankin Berkower, which conducted the Cayman Islands Football Association’s audits, explained to a jury this week how he spotted red flags in the 2014 annual review of CIFA’s books and reported his concerns to the Anti-Corruption Commission. As the trial of Canover Watson and Bruce Blake on charges of fraud and […]
Watson’s sports company partner denies taking cash
(CNS): A football equipment salesman involved in a complex business partnership with Canover Watson between 2013 and 2015 denied wrongfully taking money from the sale of sports equipment or being involved in any of the fraud that Watson is accused of perpetrating on the regional football body, CONCACAF. Shakeel Khawaja, a representative for Forward Sports, […]
