Tag: fraud
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, […]
Watson’s lawyer challenges fake invoice allegation
(CNS): The attorney representing Canover Watson challenged the false invoice claims at the heart of the crown’s case against his client as he cross examined the prosecution’s first witness on Tuesday. David Cruz, CONCACAF’s financial chief, had confirmed the accusation that three invoices from Forward Sports for over $1.5 million worth of sports kit that […]
Blake points finger at Watson and Webb over CONCACAF fraud
(CNS): Bruce Blake told investigators after he was arrested for money laundering in 2017 that he knew nothing about any dishonesty in relation to the alleged theft from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) of $1.5 million by his colleague, Canover Watson. In interviews, Blake, a former Cayman Islands Football […]
Crown: Watson stole $1.54M in football invoice fraud
(CNS): Canover Watson, the former treasurer of the Cayman Island Football Association (CITA), stole US$1.54 million from CONCACAF, the regional football body, using false and massively overinflated invoices, prosecutors alleged as they opened the decade-long case against Watson and Bruce Blake on Friday. They accused Blake, the former VP of CIFA and at the time […]
Data exposé uncovers tourism stipend fraud
(CNS): An embarrassing error for the Ministry of Labour last month, when around 3,000 names and email addresses of tourism stipend recipients were accidentally made public by staff at the ministry for border control, exposed a number of fraudulent claims, Labour Minister Chris Saunders has said. The data breach will lead to several people being […]
Scammer may soon be freed with sentence do-over
(CNS): Judith Douglas (55), who was convicted of conning a man out of more than CI$1.9 million in a massive PR and Caymanians status scam, could soon be released from prison after a judge re-sentenced her on Tuesday to serve five years. In a case that has stretched out for more than a decade, Douglas […]
Woman claims she got just $20K in $1.9M con
(CNS): Judith Douglas (55) has claimed that she kept less than $20,000 despite conning nearly $2 million from a victim in a major status scam as she said she gave the rest to a mystery man. Having tried to down play her role in the crime, Douglas will reappear in Grand Court on Wednesday for […]
Turtle farm accounts delayed by fraud case
(CNS): The delayed release of three years worth of the Cayman Turtle Centre’s accounts was due to a “very complex” audit resulting from financial irregularities uncovered in 2017, the Public Accounts Committee heard Wednesday. Four people have been charged with fraud-related offences in the case of corrupt procurement at the government-owned farm that has sucked […]
