Manhattan DA Gives $175 Million To NYC From Tyco, Lloyds Probes
February 10 2009 - 2:13PM
Dow Jones News
Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau on Tuesday
turned over to New York City officials $175 million his office
received from two major business cases.
In a press release, Morgenthau announced his office gave the
city $109 million in fines received in its criminal case against
former Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) top executives L. Dennis
Kozlowski and Mark H. Swartz.
Kozlowski, Tyco's former chief executive, and Swartz, the
company's ex-chief financial officer, were convicted in 2005 on
charges they systematically looted the company. New York's highest
court upheld their convictions last October.
Morgenthau's office also turned over to the city $66 million
received as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with Lloyds
TSB Group PLC's (LYG) banking unit. Last month, Lloyds TSB agreed
to pay $350 million in fines and forfeiture to Morgenthau's office
and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Between the mid-1990s and 2007, Lloyds TSB's banking unit
deliberately altered wire transfer information that allowed $350
million in transactions by clients in Iran, Sudan and other
countries to avoid detection, prosecutors said. Lloyds TSB is
cooperating with the probe.
The practice, known as "stripping," helps clients avoid filters
used by U.S. banks to detect transactions from countries under U.S.
sanctions.
Morgenthau previously gave New York state, which is facing a
large budget deficit, $109 million his office received from the
Lloyds TSB agreement.
-By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017;
chad.bray@dowjones.com