Tyco Invoices Detail a Lavish Lifestyle
A question to ponder: If you own a $445 pin cushion, how much do you spend on pins?
It’s not a daily problem, granted -- but it’s one that former Tyco International Ltd. Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski apparently faced. His lavish Manhattan apartment, decorated with assets allegedly stolen from his ex-employer, was filled with such extravagances.
In addition to the pin cushion, there was a $4,050 tablecloth, a $1,370 lampshade and a $515 toaster.
Those weren’t even the big-ticket items in his Fifth Avenue spread. The amount spent to furnish the $18-million apartment wavered somewhere between astonishing and unbelievable, finally landing at $11 million.
The spending spree was made public last week, just before a break in the grand larceny trial against Kozlowski and former Tyco Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, accused of looting $600 million from the company.
Testimony will not resume until Jan. 5. In the meantime, these other numbers might linger with jurors: two French antique stools, $125,000; a Persian rug, 20 feet by 16 feet, $191,250; a George I walnut arabesque clock, $113,750; and an Ascherberg grand piano, $77,000.
Apartment guests could soak up the scene from a pair of $64,278 Italian armchairs, or engage in a game of backgammon on a $38,000 gilt-and-black table.
Suits and overcoats were hung in the closet on a $2,900 set of hangers. The custom-made blue-and-gold bed skirt sold for $4,995, and a blue velvet pillow cost $2,665.
The total value of the apartment, with all its extras, reached almost $45 million, prosecutor John Moscow said.
Last week a Manhattan judge allowed jurors to view a binder filled with 300 pages of invoices cataloging Kozlowski’s purchases.
Kozlowski, 56, and Swartz, 43, went on trial Oct. 7 in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court. They each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of using Tyco’s money to finance their opulent lifestyles.
Justice Michael Obus has given prosecutors latitude to demonstrate what they call the defendants’ overarching greed, but his patience was waning as the trial ended its third month. “I’m much more interested in hearing from former directors,” he said, “than decorators.”
