TROY, Mich. (AP) – Six former Kmart executives charged the company for nannies, luxury cars and private chauffeurs even as the discount retailer fought a losing battle against bankruptcy, creditors said in a lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Kmart Creditor Trust alleges former chief executive and chairman Chuck Conaway, former president Mark Schwartz and four others cost Kmart more than $1 billion in personal and business expenses through poor management.

The lawsuit says Conaway billed Kmart $106,191 for improvements to his private home, including $34,948 for a guard house. He had two company-issued Jaguars, plus a Lincoln Navigator and a driver to take his children to school.

The lawsuit also alleges the executives concealed Kmart’s deteriorating condition from the board of directors.

“Conaway repeatedly indicated that Kmart was on the rebound and that success was just around the corner. In fact, the opposite was true,” the lawsuit says. “Even as Kmart was collapsing, Conaway, Schwartz, and the remaining individual defendants took numerous opportunities to enrich themselves and their cronies, all at the expense of Kmart.”

Schwartz’s attorney, Brian Rosner, declined comment Wednesday. Conaway’s attorney did not immediately return calls by The Associated Press seeking comment.

The creditor trust was set up in April to recoup money for creditors who lost billions when Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002. The bankruptcy filing resulted in the closing of about 600 stores, cost 57,000 Kmart employees their jobs and canceled Kmart’s stock.

The trust sued six other former executives in September to recoup millions in loans given to them weeks before Kmart filed for bankruptcy.

Kmart Holding Corp., as the company now is called, “is not involved in either the pursuit of these individuals or in legal action initiated by the creditor trust against other companies,” spokesman Jack Ferry said.

The lawsuit also names PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kmart’s accounting company from 1993 until last month, citing accounting negligence. PricewaterhouseCoopers spokesman Steven Silber declined comment, saying he had not seen the lawsuit.

None of the executives named in the lawsuit has been accused of criminal wrongdoing, but a federal investigation into the company’s collapse continues. Federal charges against two other former Kmart executives were dismissed Nov. 7.

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On the Net:

Kmart Holding Corp.: http://www.kmart.com

AP-ES-11-19-03 1449EST