Comverse Technologies CEO Kobi Alexander Caught In Sri Lanka

As I've previously written, the options backdating story has all the elements necessary to be the media's favorite scandal of 2006. It even has a "public face" - Kobi Alexander, the CEO of Comverse Technologies (CMVT), who transferred some $52 million of his money out of the country before being indicted by the feds for all kinds of financial trickery (including some very greasy moves he'd made with options awards).

Following the indictment, it looked like Alexander had pulled a D.B. Cooper and disappeared.

Now he's apparently been found. A private investigator hired by an unnamed venture capitalist firm tracked him down in Sri Lanka by tracing the location of a Skype phone call. I guess Alexander thought that Skype (a VOIP service) was more secure than a land line.

I have a friend who works for the NSA (which apparently stands for "No Such Agency) and another in military intelligence. They can't tell me what they do, but they do regularly remind me that NOTHING I do over the Internet is really private.

I just wish they'd stop making references to my bank account balances...