‘Kobi’ Alexander, former Comverse CEO, released from prison

Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the former CEO of Long Island software firm Comverse Technology who fled to Namibia for a decade to avoid facing fraud charges, has been released from prison in Israel after serving just 20 months of a 2-1/2 year sentence, his lawyer confirmed Tuesday.

Alexander was sentenced in February, 2017, to 30 months in prison for backdating stock options by Brooklyn U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Garaufis had said he wanted to send a message that wealthy executives couldn’t escape punishment by fleeing.

But Alexander’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, said Tuesday that as part of the plea agreement to get him to come out of hiding in Namibia, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had agreed to not oppose a prison transfer to Israel, where Alexander is a citizen, after sentencing.

Brafman said the transfer was okayed by the Justice Department, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and Israeli authorities. Alexander was transferred last month, and in Israel – unlike the U.S. – he was eligible for parole after completing 2/3 of his sentence, which he began serving when he returned to the U.S. in mid-2016, he said.

Alexander was released Tuesday, Brafman confirmed. The news was first reported by Reuters.

“The plea agreement could not have been more clear that we would be making application for him being transferred to Israel after sentencing and that the government would take no position,” Brafman said.

The 2-1/2 year sentence imposed by Garaufis exceeded by six months the longest sentence imposed for options backdating. Brafman said he thought the final outcome was fair.

“We are pleased,” he said. “I think on balance it was a reasonable disposition. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to bring him back sooner from Namibia. Nevertheless, I’m delighted by the outcome.”

Alexander, 65, an Israeli citizen, founded Comverse, a digital voicemail pioneer, in Woodbury in 1982. He fled to Namibia in 2006, just before he was accused of backdating options for himself and other executives from 1998 to 2001 without disclosing the practice in annual reports.

Although he never cashed in his backdated options, prosecutors said the scheme cost the company $51.8 million and led to its delisting as a publicly traded company, reducing the market capitalization by $800 million. Two other executives eventually pleaded guilty.

When Alexander fled, he allegedly misled his own lawyers and the government about his plans to return and secretly moved $50 million overseas. Prosecutors said last year that he was worth $100 million and lived in comfort on a golf course in Namibia.

Originally, he was also charged with obstruction of justice for offering another executive a bribe to take responsibility for the scheme, but that charge was dropped as part of the deal to get him to return, and he was never charged for fleeing to avoid prosecution.

Alexander’s plea agreement in Brooklyn federal court does say prosecutors will take no position on any application to “transfer his sentence pursuant to the international prisoner transfer program.” It leaves the decision to the Justice Department’s Office of Enforcement Operations, but makes no mention of getting parole as part of a transfer.

The office of interim U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue had no immediate comment on news of Alexander’s release on Tuesday, nor did the Justice Department or the federal Bureau of Prisons.