Kobi Alexander sells 3 Manhattan apartments for $35M

Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, a fugitive Israeli software executive, has sold three apartments near the top of a high-rise tower on Broadway as part of his recent settlement of charges brought by the US regulators the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Wall Street journal also reported that the combined sale price reported in the deed documents for the three contiguous units in the Park Imperial, at West 56th Street and Broadway, was $35.2 million. The highest price apartment sale this year was the $33.2 million penthouse at Trump International.

WSJ states that the deal wasn't an arm's-length transaction. Rather, the buyer was a limited liability company represented by Alexander's lawyer. Court records show that Alexander had promised to transfer the apartments to his wife, Hana.

The sale was carried out shortly before Alexander turned over more than $53 million to settle civil charges brought by the Security and Exchange Commission that he backdated millions of stock options at Comverse, a software company based on Long Island that develops and markets telecommunications software.

Criminal charges brought by the US attorney's office in Brooklyn in 2006 against Alexander are still pending. He fled the US that year and currently is living in Namibia.

"Mr. Alexander's sale of the apartments was authorized and effectuated pursuant to agreements with the government and Comverse resolving the civil cases," Alexander's lawyer Bruce I. Judelson noted at the closing.

The WSJ further noted that after bringing charges against Alexander, the government moved to seize two of his investment accounts holding tens of millions of dollars. Ms. Alexander challenged the seizure of the investment accounts. As part of the recent settlement, Ms. Alexander relinquished her claim on the investment accounts in exchange for the right to the apartments or the proceeds from their sale, according to court records.

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