Lawyers’ ‘trick’ wins time for Kobi

A SNEAK move on the part of the heavyweight legal team of fugitive fraud suspect Kobi Alexander forced a postponement in the start of Alexander’s extradition hearing yesterday.

Alexander is wanted in the US to go on trial for fraud and other charges. Alexander and his phalanx of lawyers knew more than five months ago that senior Windhoek Magistrate Sarel Jacobs would be conducting the extradition hearing that should determine whether Namibia will hand over the Israeli-born Alexander (54) to the United States authorities.His legal team however waited until yesterday – the day that the extradition hearing was set to start – to spring a surprise of note on both the Magistrate and Deputy Prosecutor General Johnny Truter, who was to represent the State at the hearing.They confronted them with a request that the hearing should be heard by a different Magistrate.In local legal circles Magistrate Jacobs is generally considered to be one of Namibia’s most competent Magistrates.That was not good enough for Alexander and his lawyers, though.Some members of Alexander’s legal team – consisting of no fewer than six lawyers, including a Windhoek-based senior counsel and two lawyers from the Johannesburg Bar – met Magistrate Jacobs and Truter behind closed doors to inform the Magistrate that they would rather not have him sit on Alexander’s case.As a result, Magistrate Jacobs recused himself from the matter.The extradition hearing has now been postponed to June 8.This is only a preliminary date for the start of the hearing, which will have to take place before another Magistrate.None of the parties involved in the matter were prepared to divulge the reasons for the Alexander team’s recusal request yesterday.It is however understood that Alexander’s lawyers claim that they had reason to fear that the Magistrate might not be unbiased and impartial when he conducts the hearing.Alexander remains free on bail of N$10 million in the meantime, until the case returns to court.Windhoek legal practitioners Dr Pieter Henning, SC, Reinhardt Toetemeyer, Louis du Pisani and Linus Mokhatu, and South African counsel Matthew Chaskalson and Quentin Leech, were at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court to represent Alexander.WANTED MAN Alexander is a wanted man in the United States, where a New York grand jury has indicted him on 35 charges related to allegations that he had committed fraud while he was in charge of a high-tech telecommunications software and systems company, Comverse Technology Inc., which is based in New York.The US government first asked its Namibian counterpart in late September last year to have a warrant for Alexander’s provisional arrest, pending his extradition to the US, issued in Namibia.Such a warrant was issued by a Windhoek Magistrate on September 27 – the same day that a Proclamation by the President of Namibia was published in the Government Gazette to announce that President Hifikepunye Pohamba had on August 31 in terms of the Extradition Act designated the United States as a country to which persons could be extradited from Namibia.Alexander was released on bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia – after spending six days in custody.In the indictment that a grand jury in the US has charged him with, Alexander is accused of having committed various instances of fraud in the time that he was the Chief Executive Officer Comverse Technology Inc, which he had helped found in the early 1980s and helped steer to a position where it was regarded as an industry leader worth more than four billion US dollars.It is alleged that 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 stock 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 the alleged backdating of options to buy Comverse shares.While these were allegedly the ill-gotten gains 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, 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.Alexander and his phalanx of lawyers knew more than five months ago that senior Windhoek Magistrate Sarel Jacobs would be conducting the extradition hearing that should determine whether Namibia will hand over the Israeli-born Alexander (54) to the United States authorities.His legal team however waited until yesterday – the day that the extradition hearing was set to start – to spring a surprise of note on both the Magistrate and Deputy Prosecutor General Johnny Truter, who was to represent the State at the hearing.They confronted them with a request that the hearing should be heard by a different Magistrate.In local legal circles Magistrate Jacobs is generally considered to be one of Namibia’s most competent Magistrates.That was not good enough for Alexander and his lawyers, though.Some members of Alexander’s legal team – consisting of no fewer than six lawyers, including a Windhoek-based senior counsel and two lawyers from the Johannesburg Bar – met Magistrate Jacobs and Truter behind closed doors to inform the Magistrate that they would rather not have him sit on Alexander’s case. As a result, Magistrate Jacobs recused himself from the matter.The extradition hearing has now been postponed to June 8.This is only a preliminary date for the start of the hearing, which will have to take place before another Magistrate.None of the parties involved in the matter were prepared to divulge the reasons for the Alexander team’s recusal request yesterday.It is however understood that Alexander’s lawyers claim that they had reason to fear that the Magistrate might not be unbiased and impartial when he conducts the hearing.Alexander remains free on bail of N$10 million in the meantime, until the case returns to court.Windhoek legal practitioners Dr Pieter Henning, SC, Reinhardt Toetemeyer, Louis du Pisani and Linus Mokhatu, and South African counsel Matthew Chaskalson and Quentin Leech, were at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court to represent Alexander.WANTED MAN Alexander is a wanted man in the United States, where a New York grand jury has indicted him on 35 charges related to allegations that he had committed fraud while he was in charge of a high-tech telecommunications software and systems company, Comverse Technology Inc., which is based in New York.The US government first asked its Namibian counterpart in late September last year to have a warrant for Alexander’s provisional arrest, pending his extradition to the US, issued in Namibia.Such a warrant was issued by a Windhoek Magistrate on September 27 – the same day that a Proclamation by the President of Namibia was published in the Government Gazette to announce that President Hifikepunye Pohamba had on August 31 in terms of the Extradition Act designated the United States as a country to which persons could be extradited from Namibia.Alexander was released on bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia – after spending six days in custody.In the indictment that a grand jury in the US has charged him with, Alexander is accused of having committed various instances of fraud in the time that he was the Chief Executive Officer Comverse Technology Inc, which he had helped found in the early 1980s and helped steer to a position where it was regarded as an industry leader worth more than four billion US dollars.It is alleged that 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 stock 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 the alleged backdating of options to buy Comverse shares.While these were allegedly the ill-gotten gains 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, 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.