The former general counsel at technology company Comverse has been sentenced to jail for a year and a day for backdating share options-related crimes.

William Sorin is the first general counsel to be sent to prison for involvement in backdating share options.

Sorin, who agreed to pay fines of $3.1m (£1.6m) in January to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), was sentenced by Judge Nicholas Graufis at a hearing in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, last week (10 May).

He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conspiracy to commit securities fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud and has been ordered to pay $51.8m (£26m) in fines.

Sorin was charged along with ex-Comverse chief executive Jacob Alexander and former chief financial officer David Krienberg last August with conspiracy to commit fraud in an alleged scheme to improperly backdate share options at the company. Alexander is currently in Namibia fighting extradition back to the US.

Comverse is one of over 180 US companies currently being investigated by the SEC as prosecutors crack down on the improper backdating of share options in publicly-traded companies.

The scandal has sparked debate as a growing number of general counsel fall under the scrutiny of both federal and state investigators. Sorin's judgment could indicate that other general counsel caught up in the scandal – former head of legal at employment website Monster Myron Olesnyckyj and Kent Roberts of software company McAfee – face jail when they come to be sentenced later in the year.