Verint Systems, the Israeli security company contracted to manage and operate London Underground’s CCTV network – which also lost crucial footage of the 7/7 bombers and the shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes – faces fraud charges in New York
Crooked Israeli Company Still Has 30 Year London Underground CCTV Contract
Tony Gosling – nineeleven.co.uk September 3, 2007
Verint Systems, the Israeli security company contracted to manage and operate London Underground’s CCTV network has become embroiled in a serious fraud case in New York. Ex Chief Executive of parent company Comverse Technologies, Jacob ‘Kobi’ Alexander faces legal action to bring him back to the U.S. for trial after absconding with $13 million and being arrested in Namibia.
Contractual arrangements are complicated by the collapse of Metronet which signed the thirty year CCTV contract with Verint ten months before the 7/7 London bombs.
The ‘stock option backdating’ scandal first came to light last year in the Wall Street Journal. Kobi Alexander is wanted for cheating shareholders out of nearly $6.5 million dollars by illegally backdating the buying and selling of lucrative stock options. Alexander is accused of laundering the money through accounts set up under fictitious names such as I. M. Fantom (I am phantom). The Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates companies listed on the New York stock exchange, is seeking Alexander’s extradition from Namibia on 35 counts of fraud.
Verint Systems, meanwhile, was suspended from the New York NASDAQ list in February 2007 because it hadn’t filed financial statements required by law. Eyebrows have been raised particularly because Verint is entrusted with the safety and security of three million people a day on the tube.
Both companies are close relations with Western Intelligence Agencies. They provide telephone surveillance software and mobile phone voicemail software used to gather information on those suspected of being ‘terrorists’ or ‘subversives’. They are also one of the companies providing systems for recording phone calls automatically through numbered menu systems.
Possibly more worrying are the close links between these companies and the Israeli Army. Both Kobi Alexander and the present CEO of Verint are ex Israeli Army officers. Chief Executive of Verint, Daniel Bodner, was an officer in the Israeli Engineers. Latest news is that the two companies, Comverse and Verint, plan to split.
Serious concerns remain about the lack of London Underground CCTV images of the London Bombers on 7th July itself, as opposed to those published of a ‘dummy run’ of the bombing suspects two weeks earlier. Also an exercise on 7/7 by Visor Consultants with imaginary bombs at the exact four locations where the real bombs went off has raised more questions than it has answered.
Also to be considered is the vanishing CCTV footage from Stockwell Underground Station of the moments leading up to the killing of Brazilian Electrician Jean Charles De Menezes. LU staff handed checked and correct CCTV tapes over to the Metropolitan Police but were later told there was
nothing on them.