Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Karen Mayo Kozlowski, the wife of former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and the woman whose $2 million birthday party in Sardinia came to represent an era of executive excess, wants a divorce.
Her husband is serving a sentence of 8â� to 25 years in prison after being convicted last year of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Tyco.
In a court filing in Palm Beach, Fla., Karen Kozlowski declares the marriage "irretrievably broken," seeks half of her husband's assets and attempts to put a lien on their mansion and estate in Boca Raton, Fla., purchased with a $30 million interest-free loan from Tyco.
Karen Kozlowski's attempt to get half of her husband's property, as well as a promise of future financial support, could run into trouble. During sentencing in New York last September, State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus ordered Dennis Kozlowski to pay $167 million in restitution and fines. Since then, Kozlowski has sold an expensive New York apartment and put the proceeds in escrow, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Steven Kessler, an expert in forfeiture law, thinks Karen Kozlowski has a good chance to keep some of the assets she shared with her husband. The reason: He was convicted in New York, and the divorce filing is in Florida. If he had been convicted in federal court, federal rules of forfeiture and asset distribution would apply, but because his prosecution occurred at the state level, "There are some competing interests," says Kessler.
Karen Kozlowski has certain rights to property held jointly with her husband, he says. "There's no allegation that she was in any way involved in criminal activity," he says. "Under New York law, as a non-criminal defendant, she's got substantial rights. One ... is that you can't get a money judgment against anyone but the criminal defendant."
John Moscow, the former New York assistant district attorney who initially prosecuted Dennis Kozlowski, stressed that the ex-CEO used funds looted from Tyco for many purchases, including the Boca Raton estate cited in the divorce filing.
From waitress to jet-setter
Karen Mayo met her husband in the 1990s when she was a waitress at Ron's Beach House, a high-end restaurant frequented by Tyco executives near the company's offices in Exeter, N.H. After she and Kozlowski began dating (they were both in the process of ending their previous marriages), he helped her buy a beachfront condominium and put up the funds for her to open a restaurant in Florida.
In May 2001, after they divorced their spouses, the couple were married on the island of Antigua. A month later, for her 40th birthday, Dennis Kozlowski hosted an opulent, $2 million bash on Sardinia. The bacchanalia featured performers dressed as Roman servants and a vodka bar featuring an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David with vodka flowing out of the sculpture's male member.
Because several Tyco executives attended, Dennis Kozlowski charged half of the bill for the affair to the company.
The couple also lived sumptuously in Manhattan. Using Tyco funds, Dennis Kozlowski bought an apartment on Fifth Avenue for $17 million and spent $3 million to upgrade it. He paid a decorator $11 million to furnish the place. The lavish decorations included a $6,000 shower curtain in the maid's room, a $15,000 umbrella stand and a $17,000 traveling toilette box.
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau indicted Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz, Tyco's former chief financial officer, accusing them of stealing $600 million from the company. The first trial, which began in 2003, ended in a mistrial. But in the retrial last year, both men were convicted.
During the trials, Karen Kozlowski stood by her man, attending court almost every day. Fearful of taking elevators in the lower Manhattan courthouse where the trials were held, the athletic blonde routinely climbed the steps to the 13th floor courtroom of Judge Obus.
At her husband's sentencing last September, Karen Kozlowski doubled over in her seat several times, fighting back emotion. Brushing away tears, she and other relatives and friends left the sentencing hearing without comment after the disgraced former CEO was led away in handcuffs to prison. Dennis Kozlowski, whose lawyers are planning to appeal the conviction, is currently an inmate at the Mid-State Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison in Marcy, N.Y.
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
© Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
