Get off my beach and out of my wallet. Or not.

Photo by Jim Powers in the Inky Mirror
Dennis Kozlowski's house off the Squam Road in 2002.

Former Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowsk was sentenced Monday on grand larceny, securities fraud and other charges. He got eight to 25 years in prison, and was ordered to pay a total of $167 million in restitution and fines.

This is of personal interest to me because part of his crime was impropertly taking Tyco money to buy what used to be my family’s beach on Nantucket. He has what the SEC complaint calls “a palatial estate” on the property (pictured above), which had only a decrepit one-room shack without water or electricity when we sold it. According to the complaint, he improperly used loans from Tyco to purchase the property and then improperly forgave himself the loans. Kozlowski also directed millions of dollars of charitable contributions in his own name using Tyco funds. Recipients mentioned in the complaint included the Nantucket Historical Association and my undergraduate alma mater. In the Nantucket Inquirer Mirror, Michael Sullivan, who was the director of development at Nantucket Cottage Hospital during the years Kozlowski donated millions to the facility, said “His [Kozlowski’s] personal generosity is scattered across the island and we should never forget that.” It doesn’t sound like it was exactly personal generosity.

I’m not sure if he bought the property directly when it was sold by my family, but my current homeownership is possible because of that transaction. I don’t doubt that someone else would have bought the place if he hadn’t, but it still makes me queasy. I guess I feel better that he has to pay a lot of money back, but I'll wait until that particular event has happened before I put too much stock in it.

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cites:
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/complr17722.htm
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12692648.htm
http://www.inquirermirror.com/Kozlowski091905.html
http://www.inquirermirror.com/Kozlowksi062305.html