By Andrew Warshaw
February 8 – “Canover Watson’s fall from grace is now complete,” reported the local newspaper after yet another one-time high-profile FIFA figure brought shame upon football’s scandal-tarnished world governing body.
Watson, a former member of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee, the watchdog that polices financial transactions in and out of the organisation, was found guilty last week of fraud during his time in charge of the health service in his native Cayman Islands.
Justice Michael Mettyear told Watson (pictured) during sentencing: “You behaved shamelessly falsifying presentations, letters, emails, contracts and signatures; you fooled a number of senior civil servants and possibly a minister.”
Watson’s senior defence counsel, Trevor Burke QC, said his client had been “ruined”.
Although the charges were not football-related, the judgement against an official who served on the body which strictly monitors FIFA’s finances represents another huge embarrassment to the image of an organisation that will elect a new president in under three weeks.
A statement from the Caymans’ Anti-Corruption Commission said 45-year-old Watson was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to defraud, fraud on the government, conflict of interest and breach of trust by a public official. He was found not guilty of a money-laundering charge.
Watson was originally suspended from the audit and compliance committee in September 2014 pending the outcome of the case. He had also been treasurer of the Cayman Islands Football Association and was a vice-president of the Caribbean Football Union.
If the sentence was a blow to FIFA’s image, it was an even bigger one for the Caymans, whose most notorious football official, former CONCAFAF president Jeffrey Webb, is currently awaiting trial in the United States having pleaded guilty to racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering as part of the US Department of Justice’s investigation into FIFA which has seen 41 individuals and entities so far indicted.
During the two month trial, Watson was accused of running a scheme to skim hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from a CarePay patient swipe-card contract. In sentencing the millionaire businessman, the court revealed that he had conspired with Webb to “steal money from the Cayman Islands government… from the Health Services Authority and CINICO.”
Watson was treasurer of his national FA at the time Webb, his partner in crime, was its president and Justice Mettyear added: “You were able to succeed because of your position of power and trust as chairman of the HAS (Health Services Authority).”
Watson’s legal team pleaded that the effect of any conviction and long sentence would ruin his life. “It will leave him penniless. His prospects of employment once he’s released from custody … (will be) very difficult,” Burke was reported as arguing.
But the judge paid no heed to that.
“The evidence against you was overwhelming. You had been an inspiration to many young Caymanians,” he said. “What on earth must they think now.”
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