2 min read

EXETER, N.H. (AP) – Five years ago, when the huge conglomerate he built was run from here, L. Dennis Kozlowski was a corporate star.

Today, Kozlowski is a convicted felon facing up to 25 years in prison and fewer than 200 of Tyco International Ltd.’s roughly 250,000 employees work in the state.

Kozlowski, an aggressive dealmaker, made billions of dollars in acquisitions in a decade as chief executive of Tyco, which is nominally based in Bermuda for tax reasons. But the company was run from a small building on Holland Way in Exeter that was later sold to Bentley Pharmaceuticals.

A generous donor, Kozlowski pledged $5 million of Tycos money to the University of New Hampshire and another $100,000 to the American Independence Museum in Exeter.

When he was in New Hampshire, he lived in a 10-room North Hampton home on Runnymede Drive with an indoor pool, wine cellar, exercise room and tennis court. The home and its 15 acres were sold a year ago for $1.6 million.

Kozlowski and his first wife, Angeles, bought it in 1985 for $277,000.

Kozlowski resigned as Tyco’s chief executive in June 2002 because he was being investigated for possible sales tax evasion in New York state. That turned out to be the tip of the iceberg as he and his chief financial officer were charged with looting more than $600 million from the company.

Tyco’s new management moved the U.S. headquarters to West Windsor, N.J. Tyco still has facilities in Newington, where it makes undersea cable, and in Portsmouth. Tower Publishing says Tyco employed 180 people in the state last year.

Tyco officially moved from New Hampshire to Bermuda in 1997 after buying Bermuda-based ADT Ltd., which makes security alarm systems.



Information from: New Hampshire Union Leader, http://www.theunionleader.com

Comments are no longer available on this story