(Bloomberg) A former Tyco International Ltd. official testified that ex-Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski said a director approved the payment of almost $100 million in bonuses, half of which went to Kozlowski and his finance chief.

Some of the payments are among the $150 million in bonuses and loans that Kozlowski and former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz are accused of awarding themselves without the board?s knowledge.

The two men are facing the charges in New York State court for a second time after a mistrial in April. Patricia Prue, a former head of human resources, said Swartz and Kozlowski told her that director Philip Hampton signed off on the package, awarded as mortgage loan forgiveness for relocating executives.

?Mark told me that Dennis had received approval of that from Philip,? Prue, a government witness, told the New York state court jury. She said Swartz brought the bonus plan to her in August or September 2000. At a later meeting, Kozlowski told her the same thing, she said. Hampton, who was ill with cancer at the time, died the next year.

Swartz, 44, and Kozlowski, 58, are facing 31 counts of grand larceny, conspiracy and securities fraud. Defence lawyers claim their clients had no intention of stealing the money and that the board knew or could have learned of the payments.

The most serious charge carries a 25-year jail term. The bonuses forgave employee loans granted under a program created to facilitate the move of Tyco headquarters from New Hampshire to Boca Raton, Florida, in 1998.

Included in the package were payments to cover the tax liability generated by the loan forgiveness. Kozlowski got a total of $32 million, Swartz got half that. Kozlowski told Prue that the bonuses were to reward employees for their work on the initial public offering of stock in TyCom Ltd., a Tyco subsidiary, Prue said.

Documents presented in court by prosecutor Owen Heimer showed that among recipients of the bonuses were a company doctor and a ?fitness director,? who together got more than $2 million.

Prue said Kozlowski wanted to keep the programme confidential to avoid hurting the morale of employees who didn?t receive bonuses. Prosecutors say dozens of employees received the bonuses.

Prue also testified that she was awarded a bonus under the program even though she never moved to Florida. She was given a total of $1.27 million to cover the cost of her 1998 move from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and the price of a company-owned condominium that she used when visiting Florida on business.

?I told them that they didn?t need to do that,? Prue testified. ?I thanked Mark.?

Later in 2000, Swartz presented Prue with a second bonus program to reward employees for the successful sale of ADT Automotive. Again, Swartz told her Kozlowski had cleared the matter with Hampton.

Swartz and Kozlowski got $24 million in ADT bonuses. Prue got shares, a cash bonus and an apartment in New York. Swartz told Prue the bonus would have a ?relocation component,? she said.

She said she planned to have a lawyer draw up a formal relocation plan. ?He said he was going to take care of that,? she testified.

In June 2002, Kozlowski resigned from Tyco the day before he was accused of evading sales taxes on $13.2 million in art purchases. He is to be tried separately on those charges. Swartz left in September 2002.

Prosecutors told jurors in their opening statement last month that the men sold as much as $575 million of Tyco stock and options while committing the fraud. Both deny wrongdoing.

Kozlowski presided over more than $64 billion of acquisitions in the last five years of his decade as chief executive. The Bermuda-based company is the world?s biggest maker of electronic connectors, industrial valves, plastic hangers and security systems.

Tyco shares have more than doubled since June 2002, when Kozlowski was first indicted. The stock dropped $1.20 to $22.76 at 4:18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.