Ending a decade on the run, the former chief executive officer of Comverse Technology Inc who fled to Africa to avoid prosecution in a stock options scandal is returning to the United States to plead guilty in a fraud case.
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Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, 64, will plead guilty to one count of backdating stock options, the lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said in an email. Alexander, who has dual US and Israeli citizenship, originally faced 35 criminal counts including stock-option backdating, conspiracy, fraud and money laundering.
The defendant had been arrested in Namibia in September 2006 after a global manhunt. He is also accused of money laundering after moving millions of dollars to personal accounts in Israel, as well as bribery and witness tampering for trying to convince Comverse’s CFO to take the blame for the scandal. Comverse was bought out in 2013 by a former unit, Verint Systems.
Comverse, which provided technology for telephone communications, moved to Manhattan after Alexander fled to the southwestern African nation of Namibia in 2006.
While in Namibia, Alexander, who left a tattered company in his wake, lived in a gated community on the ground of the Windhoek Country Club in a luxury townhouse, CNBC reported.
US prosecutors have long called the Israeli-born Alexander a fugitive.
Namibia does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Alexander has remained in Namibia long after his fellow former executives got out of prison, reportedly flying in 200 guests for his son’s bar mitzvah in 2008.
CNBC reports that he is returning to the US after two years of secret negotiations between the US Justice Department, the Namibian government and Alexander’s lawyers, which ended in a plea bargain agreement.
In 2010, Alexander settled federal lawsuits against him when he agreed to a forfeiture and fine totaling $53 million.
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“Notwithstanding his departure from Namibia, Mr. Alexander and his family will continue their charitable work in Namibia”, Brafman said in a statement to CNBC. “These soup kitchens will continue to operate, employing seven people and feeding 700 children each day”.
