Telit Communications chief fired after fraud allegations

Telecoms company dismisses Oozi Cats after investigators found an Uzi Katz was named as fugitive defendant in US in 1990s

Shane Hickey and Rupert Neate
Monday 14 August 2017 17.58 BST

The chief executive of a London telecoms company has been fired after it alleged that he had been lying about his true identity for at least 17 years and was on the run from US police.

Oozi Cats, 56, was dismissed on Monday by Aim-listed Telit Communications after the company’s private investigators found that he was in fact Uzi Katz, named by Boston’s district court as a “fugitive defendant” wanted in connection with an alleged 1990s property scam.

Telit, which has lost more than half of its stock market value over the past week, said there was considerable anger that Cats had sought to hide his past from the company he had worked at since 2000.

Cats, who has earned £18m from Telit since 2009 and is understood to live at the company’s expense in a villa on the grounds of a 12th-century castle on the outskirts of Rome, did not respond to requests for comment. Lawyers said to be representing Cats also failed to respond to requests for comment.

-snip-