FIFA member charged with fraud

George Town - A member of FIFA's financial monitoring panel has been charged with fraud in a criminal investigation in his Cayman Islands homeland.

A Cayman anti-corruption unit has charged Canover Watson with money laundering, fraud and breach of trust amid a probe into a 2010 contract to supply local hospitals with a swipe-card billing system.

The 43-year-old Watson is the former chair of a health authority board in the British Caribbean territory. He issued a statement denying any wrongdoing after being questioned by investigators in August.

Calls to Watson's Grand Cayman home went unanswered Thursday. He is due in court on Tuesday.

Watson was temporarily suspended from FIFA's eight-person audit and compliance committee in September pending the outcome of the Cayman case. The panel scrutinizes FIFA's $1 billion-plus annual revenue and commercial contracts.