Syed arrested in Switzerland

(CNS): The former president of the University College in the Cayman Islands has been arrested in Switzerland, RCIPS officials confirmed Thursday. 47-year-old Hassan Iftikar Syed is currently being detained there in relation to a number of offences which took place in the Cayman Islands some five years ago. Syed was reportedly arrested in November following the international circulation of information that he was wanted by police here. The RCIPS is currently liaising with the director of public prosecutions and the Swiss authorities in an effort to secure Syed’s extradition to the Cayman Islands as expeditiously as possible but warned it could take some time.

“It should be noted that extradition can be a lengthy and complicated process, as such, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time and a further update will be provided as and when appropriate,” an RCIPS spokesperson stated.

The Swiss police have arrested Syed in connection with several offences of theft, obtaining money transfer by deception and obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception.

Syed disappeared from the Cayman Islands shortly after claiming to be extremely ill and having taken a salary advance to pay for medical expenses. However, shortly after the finger of suspicion was pointed at the former university boss, after the Office of the Auditor General examined the university books in 2008 and turned up a number of ‘financial irregularities’, a term used by officials to describe possible theft.

Syed was suspected of purchasing Tiffany jewellery and paying for extravagant weekends away on a government credit card to the tune of some $200,000. It also appeared that Syed misled the college authorities and had lied about his qualifications and experience.

After absconding and turning up in Canada at the Toronto’s Centennial College a few months later, he disappeared once again. Syed was spotted by a CNS reader in Las Vegas in May 2012 (as seen in the photo above) but there has been no news of the fugitive since until today’s news.

Syed joined UCCI in 2003 and worked for three years as the chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Technology before he was appointed president of the college in 2006.