MARCY, New York (Bloomberg) — L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive officer of Tyco International Ltd., says he doesn’t mind that his $13 million yacht, $10 million mansion and $5 million Monet were sold to help pay court-ordered fines and restitution for looting the company he led.“It was just stuff,” Kozlowski, 59, said during an interview on November 11 at Mid-State Correctional Facility at Marcy, New York, where he’s serving 8 [1/3] to 25 years.

Kozlowski is one of the most high-profile executives sent to jail for fraud after the collapse of Enron Corp. in 2001 spurred regulators to investigate companies.

As CEO, he made $300 million between 1998 and 2002 and celebrated his good fortune with a $2 million party for his wife, who now is divorcing him. He owes $167 million; his prison pay tops out at about a dollar a day.

As he sat at a table in the visitor’s lounge at Mid-State, a medium-security prison 250 miles from New York City, Kozlowski, bald and clean-shaven, appeared leaner than he did at his sentencing in September 2005.

Casual attire, such as his open-collared pink shirt, has replaced the dress shirts and suits he wore to criminal court through two trials, the first of which ended in a mistrial.

“At times you do better than you deserve, and at times you do worse than you deserve,” said Kozlowski, whose 60th birthday is Nov. 16. “In life, I’ve gotten better than I deserved. This is one of those worse times.”

In June, 2005, Kozlowski and his former finance chief Mark Swartz were convicted in New York state court of grand larceny, securities fraud and other crimes, for stealing $137 million in unauthorised bonuses from Tyco, abusing company loan programs and selling $410 million in inflated stock. Swartz is serving 8 [1/3] to 25 years at a prison in Rome, New York, about ten miles from where Kozlowski is housed. Swartz refused to be interviewed.

Kozlowski is trying to have his convictions overturned. His attorneys filed a 192-page appeal on October 3, urging a state appeals court to “disregard the tenor of the times,” the post-Enron mood that they suggest contributed to the verdict against their client.

It’s unclear when the appeal will be decided. If it fails, Kozlowski could be released as early as August 25, 2012, with credit for good behaviour, according to Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections.

“I’m awaiting the results of my appeal with the hopes of getting my life — a life back,” Kozlowski said. “I haven’t thought beyond the appeal.”

The former chief executive, whose two sisters and their husbands were visiting during the November 11 interview, didn’t want to discuss the merits of his case with the appeal pending.

He talked about the proposed breakup of Tyco, which now has a market capitalisation of $60 billion. The new management has said it wants the split to buttress the stock and each division’s financial performance.

The company, nominally based in Bermuda and operating out of West Windsor, New Jersey, announced plans in January to keep the fire-and-security and valves businesses together, while spinning off the health-care and electronics units next year.

“Intuitively, it’s a good idea,” said Kozlowski.

In 2002, he endorsed a break-up that the board abandoned after the market reacted unfavourably, he said.

“That was like five years ago,” he said. “I don’t even know what the value of Tyco is right now.”

Kozlowski, who worked his way through Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, became CEO of Tyco in 1992. In his decade as the top executive, he boosted revenue ten-fold, to $36 billion, presiding over more than $64 billion of acquisitions during his last five years at the company.

Tyco’s health-care division is the world’s second-biggest maker of disposable medical products. The electronics unit is the world’s biggest maker of connectors for everything from airplanes to cell phones. Tyco is also the world’s biggest maker of industrial valves.

Kozlowski, who once managed about 270,000 employees, resigned on June 3, 2002, the day before the Manhattan district attorney charged him with evading more than $1 million in sales taxes on art purchases, including the Monet.

These days, Kozlowski said, he has limited access to news. He knew New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was elected governor on November 7. He could also discuss the New York Yankees’ performance last season. Among Kozlowski’s assets up for sale is a small share of the baseball team.

Kozlowski now plays baseball and softball behind the barbed wire and steel doors of the state prison. He’s passes time reading biographies of US presidents and Che Guevara, the revolutionary leader.

His latest book, given to him by a former Tyco employee, details the life of Madame Chiang Kai-shek.

“I probably read over 100 books,” he said.

His wife Karen filed for divorce last summer.

The birthday party Kozlowski threw for her on Sardinia in 2001 was among many Tyco-financed extravagances presented to the jury that convicted him. He declined to talk about Karen.

Kozlowski is one of 12 men housed in the protective custody unit at Mid-State, Foglia said. He’s allowed to spend 16 hours a day outside his cell and works as a dining room attendant and a teacher’s aide.

“He’s not making anything more than $1.05 a day,” Foglia said.