Former Comverse counsel to pay $3 million

The former general counsel of Comverse Technology Inc., who has pleaded guilty to a scheme to pocket millions by backdating stock options, agreed Wednesday to pay about $3 million in fines and restitution to settle civil fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement also permanently bars William F. Sorin from serving as an officer or director of any public company or working as an attorney for one. As part of the accord, he neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. The agreement calls for him to pay a $600,000 civil fine and $1,670,915 in restitution and $817,509 in interest.

The SEC and federal prosecutors charged in August that Sorin and two other former top executives of voicemail software maker Comverse hatched a scheme to secretly manipulate stock options for profit -- one of two cases brought so far in the scandal over option backdating that has spread through corporate America.

The SEC said it was continuing its probe of Comverse.

The authorities have accused Sorin, former Comverse Chief Executive Jacob “Kobi” Alexander and former finance chief David Kreinberg of making stock options more lucrative by backdating their exercise price to a low point in the stock’s value -- and conspiring to falsify dates on which the options were granted by the company.

In addition, New York-based Comverse was said to have awarded thousands of stock options to fictional employees, then transferred the awards to a secret slush fund under the name I.M. Fanton (standing for phantom). The scheme allegedly allowed Alexander to award those options to favored employees and to himself without the board of directors’ approval.