Comverse ex-chief Alexander to pay $53.6 million
Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the former head of Comverse Technology Inc., agreed to pay $53.6 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission probe of allegations that he led an options-backdating scheme at the company.
Alexander will disgorge $26.2 million and pay $21.4 million in interest, in addition to a $6 million fine, according to a letter today from defense lawyer Robert Morvillo to U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York. Alexander and his wife will give up two U.S. bank accounts in a separate civil-forfeiture action, according to the letter. The amount in the accounts is $46 million, according to a statement by prosecutors in Brooklyn.
“Mr. Alexander is pleased to have resolved the SEC and civil-forfeiture actions and to put these matters behind him,” Jeremy Temkin, another lawyer for the ex-Comverse chief, said in a phone interview. “Like the previous settlements of the other civil cases, the resolutions of the SEC and civil-forfeiture actions is without any admission of fault on his part.”
Alexander, an Israeli citizen who was New York-based Comverse’s chief executive officer, was arrested in Namibia in September 2006. He is free on bail in that country while the U.S. seeks his extradition to face criminal charges related to the alleged stock-option backdating.
The forfeiture case is U.S. v. All Funds on Deposit at, 06- cv-3730, the SEC case is SEC v. Alexander, 06-cv-3844, and the criminal case is U.S. v. Alexander, 06-cr-628, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
