Fugitive ex-CEO to settle $54m suit

Jacob 'Kobi' Alexander, the former chairman and CEO of voicemail software maker Comverse Technology, who fled to Namibia in 2006 to avoid prosecution over stock option backdating, has agreed to pay nearly $54 million to settle a civil action by the US Attorney's office, says ABC News.

The settlement was filed with the US District Court Eastern District of New York. Alexander has agreed to forfeit more than $47.6 million from two investment accounts - allegedly the proceeds from a stock option manipulation scheme that also involved two other former Comverse executives.

The funds will go to Comverse, which will use them to settle shareholder suits related to the backdating allegations. Alexander will also pay a $6 million civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Paul Chambers claims a Twitter message, in which he threatened to blow up Robin Hood Airport, was sent in jest, notes The Telegraph.

But he was convicted in May of sending a menacing electronic communication, and a subsequent appeal failed to overturn the earlier decision.

Chambers and his legal team will now appeal to the High Court in a last-ditch effort to get the conviction quashed. It is thought that the appeal will centre on whether the clause in the Communications Act under which Chambers was convicted was correctly applied by prosecutors.

A sharply-divided federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that police can't use GPS to track a suspect's vehicle without a warrant, rejecting a bid by the US justice department to have the life sentence of a convicted drug dealer reinstated, states The Washington Times.

In a case closely watched by national civil liberties groups, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a five to four decision, upheld a lower court ruling that GPS data proved 'essential to the government's case' against Antoine Jones and a warrant was needed.

The decision, released without comment, came three months after a three-judge panel reversed the life sentence of Jones, who was convicted of running a drug ring from a DC nightclub.