White-Collar Crime
David Boies Testimony at Issue in Tyco Appeal
Posted Oct 26, 2007, 12:24 pm CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Testimony from a well-known lawyer hired to investigate the finances of Tyco International was improperly used to convict ex-CEO Dennis Kozlowski, his lawyer argued yesterday.
Lawyer John Martin told a New York state appeals court that lawyer David Boies should not have been allowed to testify about a conversation he had with another former Tyco officer about an improper bonus, the Associated Press reports. Boies testified that finance chief Mark Swartz told him Kozlowski had approved the bonus.
Martin also contended that Boies should not have been allowed to testify about his conclusions that the executives were guilty of larceny.
Martin and a lawyer for Schwartz also argued the two Tyco officers were entitled to the money they took because they had earned it.
“The argument that you can't steal money if you earned it didn't work in 2005,” the New York Post reports. Yet the lawyers “yesterday again hauled out what they insist is their best argument.”
Prosecutors contend the issue isn't whether the men earned the money—it's whether the company authorized the payments.