Tech Titan Who Fled To Africa Faces Sentencing For Fraud
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The former chief executive officer of Comverse Technology Inc, who returned to the United States last year after spending a decade in the southern African nation of Namibia to avoid prosecution, is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday for engaging in securities fraud.
Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the Woodbury, New York-based software developer’s founder, is expected to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, who said the former executive could not be trusted when he pled guilty in August.
Lawyers for Alexander, 64, are seeking a sentence of no more than two years in prison for the Israeli citizen, who has spent six months in custody after Garaufis rejected his request for release on a $25 million bond.
In a letter to the court, Alexander urged Garaufis to consider the “good things” he did while living in Namibia and apologized for fleeing.
“I know I should have come back sooner but I could not bring myself to face the consequences of my actions,” he wrote.
But prosecutors in court papers argued Alexander’s flight warrants a “substantial sentence.” He faces up to 10 years in prison.—Reuters
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