Kobi Alexander, the founder and former CEO of Israeli high-tech company Comverse Technology, has agreed to return to the US to face criminal charges, the CNBC website reports. According to the report, Alexander will appear in court in New York on Wednesday and plead guilty to a one count indictment.
Alexander, 64, fled ten years ago to Namibia, which has no extradition agreement with the US, before being indicted for back-dating stock-options in the US.
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.
Alexander was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2006 for allegedly manipulating the value of millions of dollars of Comverse options. 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.
Former Comverse CFO David Kreinberg and general counsel William Sorin both received prison sentences after confessing to their role in the scandal. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed a civil claim against Alexander, which ended in a compromise payment of $54 million 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 22, 2016
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