NEW YORK – The second corruption trial of former Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) executives Dennis Kozlowski (search) and Mark Swartz (search) will tentatively begin Jan. 18, or about nine months after a mistrial was declared in the first case against them, a judge ruled Monday.
State Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus, who presided over the first trial, also declined to dismiss grand larceny charges against Kozlowski and Swartz, the company's former chief executive and chief finance officer, respectively.
The larceny charges are part of an overall case by prosecutors that accuses the former executives of looting Tyco of $600 million.
But Obus on Monday did throw out half of the charges against Kozlowski in a separate case that accuses him of cheating on taxes relating to art purchases. The judge is due to decide at a later date whether the remaining art-related charges will be included in the overall corruption trial.
The first corruption trial of Kozlowski and Swartz, which lasted six months, ended in a mistrial when Obus halted jury deliberations after one panelist received a suspicious letter.
The case, thought to cost the state as much as $6 million and the defendants just as much, captured public attention when testimony revealed Kozlowski's lavish spending.
Kozlowski and Swartz built Tyco into one of the world's largest conglomerates by buying hundreds of companies, and the first case against them was considered a pivotal prosecution in the wake of other U.S. corporate scandals, such as those at Enron (search) and WorldCom (search).
Prosecutors claimed Kozlowski and Swartz used Tyco as their piggy bank, enjoying unauthorized bonuses, forgiven loans and other payments, but defense attorneys said all the money was paid with company approval.
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