Kobi in court, but no date set for extradition hearing

THE starting date of an extradition hearing that should determine whether Namibia will extradite Israeli citizen Jacob (‘Kobi’) Alexander to the United States to face fraud and other charges in connection with an alleged stock options backdating scandal was again deferred on Friday.

Alexander, the former Chief Executive Officer of the New York-based Comverse Technology Inc, appeared before Namibia’s Chief of Lower Courts, Petrus Unengu, in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday for what was supposed to be the determination of the starting date of his extradition hearing. He will now have to appear before a Magistrate again on June 25, it was decided.The Israeli-born Alexander (55), who has been indicted by a New York grand jury on 35 charges related to allegations that he committed fraud through a stock options backdating scheme while in charge of telecommunications software and systems company Comverse Technology Inc, has been living in Namibia since July last year.He was arrested in Windhoek on September 27 last year as a result of a request from the United States government for him to be taken into custody while legal proceedings to have him extradited to the US were set in motion.Alexander was released on bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia – after spending six days in custody.An extradition hearing was scheduled to start before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on April 25.That hearing however did not proceed, after Alexander’s legal team objected to the Magistrate, prompting his recusal from the case.One of Alexander’s lawyers, Rudi Cohrssen, initially suggested to Magistrate Unengu on Friday that the extradition hearing should be scheduled to take place from November 26 – 30 this year.Those dates were not set, though.Cohrssen also told the Magistrate that Alexander’s lawyers had addressed letters to the Minister of Justice, who has to assign a Magistrate to deal with the extradition hearing, on October 24 and 25 last year already.In the letters, they pointed out to the Minister that the Namibian Extradition Act required that a specific Magistrate, and not just any Magistrate in general, had to be appointed by name to deal with the extradition hearing, Cohrssen said.They had not yet received any reply to those letters, he said.In order to await a reply from the Minister, the matter was postponed to June 25, when Alexander will have to appear before a Magistrate again.He remains free on bail.In the indictment that a grand jury in the US has charged him with, Alexander is accused of committing various crimes of instances of fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice by bribery, and making false filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the time that he was the Chief Executive Officer Comverse Technology Inc.Alexander had helped found the company in the early 1980s and was its CEO and board chairman until he resigned from the company on May 1 last year.It is alleged that between 1998 and 2001 he and some senior colleagues at Comverse made large profits through trading in Comverse shares that they had received as part of their executive earnings at the company.It is also alleged that they however illegally manipulated the dates on which shares in the company were allocated to them, by choosing dates when the share price was at temporary lows, in order to increase their profits when they later sold the shares at the higher stack market prices that prevailed at later points in time.Alexander alone, it is claimed, made an illegal profit of about US$6,4 million (around N$45 million) through this alleged backdating of options to buy Comverse shares.While these are claimed to have been the unlawful profits that he secured through the alleged fraud, the US prosecuting authorities have stated in the indictment that Alexander is set to face at his trial if he is extradited that the court in which he is to be tried will be asked to order that two fixed properties that he owns in New York and some US$138 million (about N$973 million) should be seized from him.He will now have to appear before a Magistrate again on June 25, it was decided.The Israeli-born Alexander (55), who has been indicted by a New York grand jury on 35 charges related to allegations that he committed fraud through a stock options backdating scheme while in charge of telecommunications software and systems company Comverse Technology Inc, has been living in Namibia since July last year.He was arrested in Windhoek on September 27 last year as a result of a request from the United States government for him to be taken into custody while legal proceedings to have him extradited to the US were set in motion.Alexander was released on bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia – after spending six days in custody.An extradition hearing was scheduled to start before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on April 25.That hearing however did not proceed, after Alexander’s legal team objected to the Magistrate, prompting his recusal from the case.One of Alexander’s lawyers, Rudi Cohrssen, initially suggested to Magistrate Unengu on Friday that the extradition hearing should be scheduled to take place from November 26 – 30 this year.Those dates were not set, though.Cohrssen also told the Magistrate that Alexander’s lawyers had addressed letters to the Minister of Justice, who has to assign a Magistrate to deal with the extradition hearing, on October 24 and 25 last year already.In the letters, they pointed out to the Minister that the Namibian Extradition Act required that a specific Magistrate, and not just any Magistrate in general, had to be appointed by name to deal with the extradition hearing, Cohrssen said.They had not yet received any reply to those letters, he said.In order to await a reply from the Minister, the matter was postponed to June 25, when Alexander will have to appear before a Magistrate again.He remains free on bail.In the indictment that a grand jury in the US has charged him with, Alexander is accused of committing various crimes of instances of fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice by bribery, and making false filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the time that he was the Chief Executive Officer Comverse Technology Inc.Alexander had helped found the company in the early 1980s and was its CEO and board chairman until he resigned from the company on May 1 last year.It is alleged that between 1998 and 2001 he and some senior colleagues at Comverse made large profits through trading in Comverse shares that they had received as part of their executive earnings at the company.It is also alleged that they however illegally manipulated the dates on which shares in the company were allocated to them, by choosing dates when the share price was at temporary lows, in order to increase their profits when they later sold the shares at the higher stack market prices that prevailed at later points in time.Alexander alone, it is claimed, made an illegal profit of about US$6,4 million (around N$45 million) through this alleged backdating of options to buy Comverse shares.While these are claimed to have been the unlawful profits that he secured through the alleged fraud, the US prosecuting authorities have stated in the indictment that Alexander is set to face at his trial if he is extradited that the court in which he is to be tried will be asked to order that two fixed properties that he owns in New York and some US$138 million (about N$973 million) should be seized from him.