The possibility that Mr. Webb might go to prison stunned many here.

He was popular, a native of George Town, where many people are tourists and expatriates. He moved in circles with the political elite and brought an estimated $30 million to the local economy by drawing soccer tournaments to the Caymans.

Mr. Webb was said to have devoted himself so fully to developing soccer in the Caymans that he once mowed fields and scrubbed toilets, even working in an office that had no phones.

“I’m surprised; it seemed like he was honest and upright,” said Violet Wilson, a Red Cross volunteer who met Mr. Webb several times. “It’s really embarrassing. It hurts a small island for him to hold such a big job and mess it up.”

In this insular place, news of Mr. Webb’s indictment brought silence as well as disbelief. Government and soccer officials said little or nothing Friday. Osbourne Bodden, the Cayman Islands sports minister, did not mention Mr. Webb’s name in a brief statement, saying only that his ministry was not involved in the soccer investigation. A spokeswoman for the Cayman soccer federation removed all of her contact information from the website.

“I’ve been asked to have no comment,” said James Rich, the administrator of the Cayman Islands Premier League. Asked if he was shocked, Mr. Rich said: “I don’t think shock is the right word. I don’t know the right word. Let the appropriate means take place and see what happens.”

Because Mr. Webb was so popular and successful, “the country hasn’t looked deeper into what else he might have been associated with,” said David R. Legge, the owner of the Cayman Compass newspaper. “Now that this story has broken internationally, that is changing overnight. Scrutiny is beginning in earnest of what other activities and who else might have been involved.”