Kozlowski, Swartz jury deliberates charges
NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Jurors spent a second day on Friday deliberating charges against L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, former top executives of Tyco International Ltd. accused of looting the company.
Jurors began deliberating on Friday at noon. Since then they have asked for Tyco regulatory filings and auditors? documents. They asked the court to have the court read them parts of the testimony of the five former Tyco directors who appeared as prosecution witnesses.
?These people were very attentive during the trial, and it appears they?re continuing that way during their deliberations,? Kozlowski?s lawyer Stephen Kaufman said. Kozlowski, 58, chief executive of Tyco for a decade, and Swartz, 44, his chief financial officer for seven years, are accused of making $542.4 million illegally by such acts as giving themselves unauthorised bonuses, abusing company loan programs and selling Tyco?s stock after misrepresenting its financial condition to investors.
Lavish spending of company money by Kozlowski came to light in September, 2002, at a time when scandals were also unfolding at Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc.
The Tyco expenses included half the cost of a $2 million birthday party for Kozlowski?s wife and $30 million to buy and furnish his New York apartment ? the latter including a $6,000 shower curtain.
They face 31 accusations of grand larceny, stock fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy. They are on trial a second time because an earlier case ended in a mistrial last year when a juror said she had been threatened.
The ex-directors? testimony that the jurors asked for concerns $37.5 million in company loan reductions that Kozlowski and Swartz received in 1999. The directors testified that they never approved the awards and never approved of them. The defence says the awards were due them under the company?s bonus formula and that Tyco director Philip Hampton, who died in 2001, knew about the transactions.
The government says Kozlowski illegally took $95.7 million from the company and illegally made another $280 million in sales of Tyco shares. For Swartz, the government put the figures at $41.7 million and $125 million.
First degree grand larceny carries a 25-year maximum prison term. Each man faces 12 counts of grand larceny. If they are convicted on all counts, they could be sentenced to as much as 35 years in prison under New York law, according to the Manhattan district attorney?s office.
The defendants claim the disputed payments were known to some directors and were authorised under Tyco pay formulas. They say they made no attempt to hide their actions from auditors or the board and made all necessary representations to investors.
Bermuda-based Tyco, which operates out of West Windsor, New Jersey, is the world?s biggest maker of electronic connectors, industrial valves and security systems.
Swartz became finance chief at Tyco in 1995 and left the company in September 2002.
Kozlowski left Tyco on June 3, 2002, the day before he was indicted on charges of evading taxes on millions of dollars in art purchases. He is to be tried separately on those charges at a later date.