The lawsuit filed in the New York state Supreme Court claims that the company, at the time it signed the agreement with Mark Swartz, was fully aware that the Manhattan District Attorney intended to bring criminal charges against him. The lawsuit claims “The directors and management of Tyco approved the subject agreement with actual knowledge that he was shortly to be indicted.”
In a similar case between Kozlowski and Tyco (Chief Executive Dennis Kozlowski went to jail in the same case with Mark), a federal judge has ruled earlier that Kozlowski was not eligible to collect the millions he claims the company owed to him as benefits.
Swartz was the chief financial officer of Tyco International from 1995 to 2002. He was sentenced in 2005, and besides the prison sentence he has already paid $72 million in court-ordered restitution and fines.
Swartz is presently assigned to the Lincoln Correctional Facility where Kozlowski is also doing his term. Swartz is on a furlough schedule and is scheduled to appear before the Parole Board in September 2013. He is allowed to leave on Wednesdays and return on Mondays.
However Kozlowski, whose $6000 shower curtain purchased by Tyco’s money made him a symbol of corporate greed, was not allowed parole. Tyco is a Swiss company that specializes in security systems and diversified service units.
The case is Mark H. Swartz v. Tyco International Ltd., New York State Supreme Court, No. 651533/2012.