(CNS): Canover Watson and Bruce Blake, key witnesses in fraud case against football executives, tell jurors embarrassed by company Watson named as partner as part of deal to sell football equipment said. Shakeel Khawaja, who was the sales manager for Pakistani sporting goods maker Forward Sports PVT, said he knew nothing about the bill totaling more than $1.5 million.
When presenting evidence from Germany via a video link, Khawaja explained through a translator how his business dealings with Watson began. He said he met Watson and Blake at his FIFA conference in Hungary in 2012 and then again at the London Olympics. There he began a business relationship and believed there was an opportunity to supply sporting goods to regional associations, including CIFA. CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union and their members.
Khawaja said Watson has pledged $1 million in a potential order for its grassroots soccer program.
When he first came to the Cayman Islands, Watson handed him documents he did not authorize in his name for a Cayman-based forward sports company. I was shown various documents that Kawaja said he attended, including the minutes of the But witnesses said he wasn’t there.
Khawaja said he was confused by the various companies Watson has set up in Panama, according to the king. Fraud against CONCACAFHe said the company was confused because the names used were all variations of Forward Sports with “Inc.” or “Ltd” or “International”.
Khawaja discussed the possibility of creating a Cayman-based Forward Sports company to represent the Pakistan-based company’s Caribbean interests, but agreed on how to do so. He also said he wasn’t happy when he learned that Watson had gone ahead to create these confusing companies.
He told jurors he didn’t know until an Anti-Corruption Commission investigator called that Watson was another shareholder. He believes that Watson is a listed partner of the company and that he only represents the beneficial owner of the Green Day Foundation and that he is not the actual owner of the company, as Crown claims. said that
Khawaja said he has owned a sports agency in the past and set up another agency with football enthusiasts in Switzerland to sell forward sports merchandise in Europe. The company was also not very successful. He said he didn’t know much about the formation of these holding companies or how they work.
Asked about the three bills at the center of the fraud case, which were billed by one of the companies Watson founded and listed him as a shareholder, Khawaja said he knew nothing about them. . He said in court that the soccer balls, shirts, bibs and goals on the invoices claimed by CONCACAF were not sourced from Pakistan’s genuine forward sports and were not paid $1.54 million. “I wish I had that money,” he said.
His signature appeared to be on various documents, but he said he did not sign them.
Khawaja said he has a genuine business relationship with Watson. Watson brokered a deal with CONCACAF to purchase about $625,000 worth of football equipment from the Pakistan factory he represents, the kit delivered and paid for.
But three other 2013 invoices for $750,000, $148,000 and $642,000, which included excessive amounts of equipment, were issued through him, according to witnesses. It wasn’t. He claimed he had never drafted or ordered an invoice, and was unaware of its existence.
The case continues.
