Dictonary definition of corporate corruption: Tyco
Picture of the wife in the article
A birthday party for the ages
usatoday.com
By Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Jurors at the business corruption trial of former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski listened intently Monday as a former company event planner described the $2 million birthday bash the company staged in Sardinia, Italy, for his wife.
Former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski and his wife, Karen Mayo, leave court during his trial.
By Louis Lanzano, AP
In methodical questions and answers, Barbara Jacques, who testified last week that she'd previously had an intimate relationship with Kozlowski, described how she oversaw months of planning for the event that has come to symbolize executive-suite excess of the roaring '90s bull market.
Jacques testified that about 75 guests, half of them friends of Kozlowski and his wife, Karen Mayo, and half Tyco (TYC) officials, spent June 10-16, 2001, partying, jet skiing, sailing, golfing and feasting at the Cala di Volpe resort, where rooms can cost more than $1,000 a night.
She said Tyco picked up roughly half the cost of the gathering, with Kozlowski paying the rest. The only official Tyco business during the week on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda was a brief board meeting of Tycom, the firm's undersea-cable subsidiary.
Prosecutor Ann Donnelly said the lavishness of the event and the use of corporate funds provided a "snapshot into the way that these defendants used this company ... to pay for whatever extravagance they wanted."
Kozlowski and former Tyco CFO Mark Swartz are charged with looting $600 million from the company through unauthorized bonuses, loans, stock sales and other expenses, such as the birthday bash.
In rebuttal, defense lawyers presented evidence Monday to show that Tyco corporate retreats and award ceremonies for its executives routinely featured a dab of official business with a heaping helping of fun and frolic in exotic locales.
Defense lawyer Austin Campriello also argued that Kozlowski was not involved in planning the Sardinia bash and "basically was clueless as to the vast majority of what that party would entail."
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Performers and servers at the party were dressed in Roman costume.
According to Jacques, what it entailed was a no-expense-spared blowout at a Sardinian golf course elaborately decorated to reflect the party's theme: the luxury that was Rome.
Guests "were greeted by chariots and gladiators at the door," Jacques said.
"As they went into the reception area, there were live male models," some dressed in togas and others in Speedo swimsuits, she said.
Elsewhere, female servants clad in tunics milled among the guests, hand-feeding grapes to some partygoers and passing chalices of wine.
At Kozlowski's request, pop star Jimmy Buffett flew in as a special surprise guest for Mayo. He played an approximately 45-minute set of his songs, an appearance that cost $250,000, Jacques testified.
But that wasn't the night's only musical entertainment. E. Cliff and the Swingdogs, a popular band at nightspots on Nantucket, where Kozlowski has a seaside vacation home, also flew in and performed. That added $20,000 to the week's cost, Jacques testified.
During the days before and after the birthday bash, Kozlowski and Mayo feted the guests with other parties and took some sailing on the Endeavour, Kozlowski's luxury yacht.
The partying continued even after the week's events concluded. Mayo and about 12 friends flew to Florence on a Tyco jet for a week of instruction at a Tuscan cooking school, Jacques said.
During breaks in her testimony, attorneys for both sides clashed over whether the eight-man, four-woman jury should be permitted to see portions of a four-hour videotape Tyco made of the birthday bash. Prosecutors argued that the tape, and a DVD of still photos from the event, would give jurors a fuller appreciation of Tyco's spending on Kozlowski.
But defense lawyers argued that the tape and disc are irrelevant to the grand larceny and corruption charges against Kozlowski and Swartz and said they would unfairly prejudice the jury.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus agreed to allow the panel to see excerpts edited by the defense to exclude potentially prejudicial material. The censored scenes include the now-notorious ice sculpture in the form of Michelangelo's David, spouting vodka from its male appendage.
The judge also ruled out video of Mayo as she was hoisted overhead by male models and video of Mayo and a female friend standing between two gladiator-dressed models as the friend says, "We need another."
Jurors saw the edited version of the tape Tuesday.
"Whether an ice sculpture was at this party or not couldn't matter less," said Obus, adding that too much trial time was spent arguing over the tape. "The issue is whether it was a business event." |
