Kozlowski Wraps Up His Larceny Trial Testimony

Former Tyco International Ltd. Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski finished four days of testimony at his grand larceny trial, insisting Tuesday that he left it to lawyers and accountants to decide what to tell shareholders about his compensation.

Testifying only briefly in state Supreme Court in New York in response to follow-up questions from his lawyer, Kozlowski acknowledged that as CEO he signed the company’s most important documents relating to what was publicly reported about his finances.

He said he trusted the decisions of the lawyers and accountants and did not direct them on whether to include information on public documents such as tens of millions of dollars in loans that were forgiven as part of his annual bonus packages.

Kozlowski also testified that he did not notice that $25 million in bonus payments used to pay off a company loan were not included on his tax forms from the company for 1999.

“No one ever told me it wasn’t on my W-2,” he said, referring to the tax document that lists how much he was compensated for the year by the company. “It never dawned on me.”

He also said he paid about $1 million of his own money toward the company’s weeklong celebration on the Italian island of Sardinia that was promoted as a 40th birthday party for his wife. The company also paid about $1 million.

Kozlowski’s co-defendant, former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz, was to begin testifying today.

Kozlowski, 58, and Swartz, 44, are charged with grand larceny, falsifying business records, conspiracy and business law violations. Their first trial ended with a mistrial in April 2004 when a juror received a menacing letter and phone call after some media reported her name during deliberations.