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Oozi Cats, Smooth Operator

Has an Israeli CEO avoided arrest by changing the spelling of his name?

by
Liel Leibovitz
August 09, 2017
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Shutterstock
Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Telit is a large international company that provides machine-to-machine communications solutions. And yesterday, its CEO stepped down after allegations emerged that he is a fugitive evading a fraud indictment issued against him by a Massachusetts court. How has the executive avoided arrest for more than two decades? Allegedly, by spelling his name in a ridiculous way.

The CEO, Uzi Katz, was indicted for wire fraud by the District Court of Boston on January 8, 1992. According to numerous reports in the Israeli and international press, Katz then changed the spelling of his name to Oozi Cats, which kept the law at bay until the case against him was eventually dropped in 2006.

Cats, or Katz, will now take a leave of absence. The company told the Financial Times that its board of directors had “appointed independent solicitors to conduct a thorough review of this matter.” What’s in a name? We’ll soon know.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.