Monday, September 19, 2005

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

EX-TYCO CEO KOZLOWSKI SENTENCED TO AT LEAST EIGHT YEARS IN PRISON FOR SCANDAL


Canadian Press


Monday, September 19, 2005


NEW YORK (AP) - Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco International Ltd., was sentenced Monday to 81/3 to 25 years in prison Monday for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company.

His codefendant, former Tyco finance chief Mark Swartz, received the same sentence, which means they will be eligible for parole after eight years and four months.

The judge also ordered them to pay a total of $134 million in restitution; in addition, Kozlowski was fined $70 million, Swartz $35 million.

Family members wept in the gallery as the sentences were imposed.

The sentences end a case that exposed the executives' extravagant lifestyle after pilfering some $600 million from the company: A $2 million toga birthday party for Kozlowski's wife on a Mediterranean island and an $18 million Manhattan apartment with a $6,000 shower curtain.

Kozlowski, 58, and Swartz, 44, were convicted in June after a four-month trial on 22 counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records, securities fraud and conspiracy. It was their second trial - the first ended in mistrial after a juror said she received threats following reports that she made an "OK" signal to the defense team.

Kozlowski and Swartz join a line of other executives sent off to prison in a wave of white-collar scandals that shook corporate America and outraged the public after thousands of people lost their jobs and pension nest-eggs.

WorldCom Chairman Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this year for the $11 billion accounting fraud that toppled the telecommunications firm. Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling and former top Enron accountant Richard Causey are expected to go to trial in January.

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