Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz treated their publicly traded company as a personal treasury, stealing over $400 million through unauthorized bonuses, forgiven loans, and lavish personal expenditures charged to the company — including a legendary $6,000 shower curtain and a $2 million birthday party in Sardinia. The fraud unfolded during the late 1990s bull market when Tyco’s aggressive acquisition strategy kept its stock rising and scrutiny minimal; it was a chance look at a $1 million New York apartment expense that first caught prosecutors’ attention. Both executives were convicted in 2005 and sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, their case becoming a symbol of the CEO excess that defined the era alongside Enron and WorldCom.
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