A judge on Monday refused to release former Tyco International executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz on bail while they appeal their convictions on charges of stealing some $600 million from the company.
The order was signed by Justice Angela Mazzarelli of the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division in Manhattan. It was Mazzarelli who heard the pair’s bail applications and arguments on Sept. 20.
Kozlowski, 58, and Swartz, 45, have been in custody since they were sentenced Sept. 19 to eight and one-third to 25 years in prison. They were convicted in June on first-degree grand larceny and other charges related to accusations they stole $180 million outright and improperly made some $430 million by manipulating Tyco’s stock value.
Lawyers for the two — Austin Campriello for Kozlowski and Charles Stillman for Swartz — applied for bail the day after the sentencing by State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus. Assistant District Attorney Marc Scholl argued against the application.
Stillman said he was “terribly disappointed about the decision to deprive Mark of his liberty while he pursues his appeals.”
Stillman said the notice of appeal had been filed and now his client’s only option is to proceed with his attempt to have his conviction reversed.
Campriello did not immediately return calls for comment.
The two former executives have been detained since Sept. 22 at the Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, N.Y., one of three reception centers where male inmates stay for several weeks while being evaluated and waiting to be assigned to a prison where they will live full time.
Kozlowski and Swartz were each convicted in June on 22 counts of grand larceny, securities fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy after a four-month second trial. Their first trial ended in a mistrial after one juror received a menacing communication.
During the trials, prosecutors accused Tyco’s two former top executives of giving themselves illegal bonuses and forgiving loans to themselves worth up to $180 million, while also manipulating Tyco’s stock price by lying about the company’s finances.
Assistant District Attorney Owen Heimer said the defendants looted Tyco while Kozlowski was the highest paid executive in the country. Though Kozlowski made $267 million from 1999 through 2001, Heimer said, “he engaged in a shocking spree of self-indulgence with Tyco’s assets.”
Kozlowski, employed by Tyco from 1975 until 2002, and Swartz, who joined Tyco in 1991 and left in 2002, testified that they never stole anything from Tyco or received anything from the company to which they were not entitled.
Tyco, which has about 250,000 employees and $40 billion in annual revenue, makes electronics and medical supplies and owns the ADT home security business. Nominally based in Bermuda, its operations headquarters are in West Windsor, N.J.