The FBI have issued a warrant for a fugitive former Cisco executive charged with multi-million dollar stock fraud after he failed to report to authorities.

Robert S. Gordon, 42, a former vice president of business development at Cisco, missed a court hearing on Tuesday and has been missing since last week, according to the FBI.

The US attorney's office has seized a $5 million bond Gordon filed with the court last year. The authorities have already seized $17 million as part of the case and are now seeking to gain possession of his $1.6 million Palo Alto home, which was used as collateral for the bond.

Gordon was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on two counts of wire fraud, and one charge of planning to illegally move Cisco-owned stock into an offshore account he controlled in the Bahamas.

In one deal, Gordon is accused of persuading Cisco to invest $15 million in an affiliated start-up company, called Spanlink, so he could siphon off $5 million through an elaborate set of stock and money transfers.

Cisco fired Gordon in April 2001, after an internal investigation.

At a hearing last year, Gordon pleaded not guilty to the charges. ®