Tag: CONCACAF
Watson accuses prosecutor of hidden conflict
(CNS): Canover Watson has filed a formal complaint against the crown lawyer who was part of the team that prosecuted him and Bruce Blake in the CONCACAF football fraud case. Watson, a former businessman, was convicted in 2022 and jailed last year for a long list of offences. But he claims the case was politically motivated and […]
Cayman kicks off World Cup qualifiers on home turf
(CIFA): Cayman’s road to the FIFA World Cup begins this week in Grand Cayman. The Cayman Islands Men’s National Team kicks off its FIFA World Cup 26 CONCACAF qualifiers by hosting Antigua and Barbuda at 3:30pm on Saturday, 8 June, at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex, George Town. “We’re excited to get World Cup qualifying […]
Webb’s sentence on hold as FIFA case on appeal
(CNS): Almost nine years after Jeffery Webb was arrested along with 13 other football, marketing and media executives in Zurich in the massive FIFA corruption case brought by the US Department of Justice, his sentencing has been postponed yet again. He was due to go before a judge to finalise his case last month, but […]
Webb sentencing in FIFA case delayed for 14th time
(CNS): According to correspondence seen by CNS from the Eastern District of New York courts, the sentencing hearing for the disgraced local football boss, Jeffery Web, has been postponed for the fourteenth time. Webb, the former president of CONCACAF and the Cayman Islands Football Association (CIFA) and former VP of FIFA, was convicted in December […]
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 […]
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 […]
