Washington – Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the former Comverse Technology Inc. chief executive who became a fugitive after being charged with securities fraud, was arrested Wednesday in Namibia.
Alexander, an ex-Israeli intelligence officer turned high-technology entrepreneur, will be brought before a court in Windhoek, the Namibian capital, within 48 hours, and the U.S. will seek his extradition, the Justice Department said.
Federal prosecutors charged Alexander, 54, on Aug. 9 with backdating stock options to boost the compensation of executives at New York-based Comverse, the world’s largest maker of voicemail software. He is the second CEO charged in the government’s probe of illegal stock-option backdating, the largest investigation of corporate wrongdoing since a mutual-fund trading scandal three years ago led to $4.3 billion in penalties.
“Alexander’s alleged role in options backdating victimized Comverse shareholders and deceived prospective investors,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in a statement. “The fraud affected the company’s bottom line by misstating earnings.”
Alexander was arrested by Interpol and local police on a Namibian warrant issued at the request of the U.S., officials said.
