Kobi Alexander
Israeli founder of Comverse Technology, convicted in the US over stock-option backdating
| Kobi Alexander
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 Tel Aviv |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder and chief executive of Comverse Technology; fugitive in Namibia 2006–2016 |
| Education | Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; MBA, New York University |
Jacob "Kobi" Alexander (born 1952) is an Israeli businessman and former army intelligence officer who founded and ran Comverse Technology, the telecoms software group from which Verint was later spun off. In 2006, while under investigation in the United States over stock-option backdating, he fled to Namibia, where he lived for a decade before returning to the US to plead guilty. In 2017 he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.[1][2]
Early life and Comverse
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Alexander was born in Tel Aviv in 1952 and served as an intelligence officer in the army. He graduated in economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1977 and took an MBA at New York University in 1980.[1] Globes reported that he began as an investment banker at Shearson Loeb, and that the idea of an Israeli company developing computerised voice mail came from his brother-in-law, Boaz Meshuli (also spelt Misholi).[3] The Encyclopaedia Judaica says he set up Efrat with Misholi and Yehiam Yemini in 1982. Comverse was formed in the US in 1986, and Alexander moved to New York in 1988.[1]
Globes notes that Verint, long led by Dan Bodner, was split from Comverse, and that Verint's security and intelligence business was itself later spun off as Cognyte.[4]
Backdating case and flight
In 2006 the US Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors charged Alexander and other Comverse executives with a scheme in which the grant dates of stock options were falsified to coincide with low points in the share price. CBS/AP reported that he was in Israel negotiating a possible surrender when he vanished, and that he turned up in Namibia after moving tens of millions of dollars overseas. In 2010 he agreed to pay nearly $54 million to settle a civil action. In 2016 he gave up his fight against extradition and agreed to plead guilty. In February 2017 a federal judge in Brooklyn sentenced him to 30 months in prison.[2]
He landed in Israel on 1 March 2018 to serve the rest of his sentence there. Globes reported that Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked had approved his request for early release and that he was freed later that month on probation, to work as a volunteer for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.[5]
See also
- Comverse Technology
- Verint
- Dan Bodner
- Cyber and tech firms founded by ex Unit 8200 or occupation forces veterans
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Encyclopaedia Judaica, Alexander, Kobi Encyclopedia.com, accessed 19 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 CBS/AP, Ex-CEO gets prison term after years as a fugitive CBS News, 23 February 2017.
- ↑ Ami Ginsburg, Comverse: Multinational with an Israeli Heart Globes, 24 August 1997.
- ↑ Shiri Habib-Valdhorn, Ex Shin Bet chief aims to make Cognyte an 'Israeli Palantir' Globes, 14 January 2025.
- ↑ Chen Maanit, Kobi Alexander released from prison Globes, 27 March 2018.