Thread: Sucks the host dry, and moves on!!!

Former Tyco CEO's wife files for divorce
By Lori Becker

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The second wife of L. Dennis Kozlowski, the ex-chief of Tyco International Ltd., has filed for divorce from the convicted corporate looter, staking claim to the sprawling waterfront mansion the couple bought with company dollars in 2001.

Karen Kozlowski, 45, filed the petition July 31 in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, asking the courts to protect her half of the Boca Raton estate.


Dennis Kozlowski, 59, jailed in an upstate New York prison on a conviction of defrauding Tyco of $600 million, has been selling real estate and artwork in recent months to raise money to pay $167 million in court-ordered fines and restitution due next month.

That includes a three-bedroom condominium in Beaver Creek, Colo., that sold for $1.25 million in June and artwork sold in May for nearly $8 million. And in July, the former executive listed his 4-acre Nantucket, Mass., estate, also bought with Tyco money, for $23 million.

If Dennis Kozlowski is considering selling his Boca home as well, his wife probably wants to make sure she gets half, said Robin Roshkind, a West Palm Beach divorce attorney not associated with the case.

Karen Kozlowski's petition for "an equitable lien" on the property is aimed at protecting her share, Roshkind said.

"She doesn't want to see her assets go up in smoke," she said.

The lawsuit also asks that all of the couple's assets and liabilities be equally distributed and that Dennis Kozlowski pay temporary, and possibly permanent, financial support to his wife.

Neither Karen Kozlowski nor her Miami-based lawyers returned requests for comment Monday.

The divorce petition comes 14 months after Dennis Kozlowski and Tyco former Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz were convicted in a New York state court on multiple counts of grand larceny, conspiracy, securities fraud and falsifying business records.

Prosecutors accused Kozlowski of defrauding Tyco to bankroll his extravagant lifestyle. Tyco's Fire and Security division is based in Boca.

He was sentenced in September to eight to 25 years in prison, but is appealing the conviction.

Dennis and Karen Kozlowski married May 5, 2001, on the Caribbean island of Antigua. They bought the 15,000-square-foot home in the tony Sanctuary development the following December, buying up five adjacent lots for about $13.6 million.

Investigators said Dennis Kozlowski used a $19 million, no-interest loan from Tyco to buy — and decorate — the 1 3/4 acres on the Intracoastal Waterway.

During their marriage, Kozlowski used Tyco's checkbook to lavishly dote on his wife, including spending $1 million to throw her a 40th birthday party on the island of Sardinia.

you've got to give her props. she owned him big time!

ouch!

1million on a 40th birthday party!