CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Mark Swartz, former chief financial officer of Tyco International, has been ordered into binding arbitration with the company.

Last week, a federal judge in New Hampshire denied Swartz’s second request to dismiss Tyco’s claim for arbitration, the Portsmouth Herald reported in Sunday’s editions.

Swartz and the company’s former chief executive, L. Dennis Kozlowski, also face charges in New York of looting the company of $600 million. Their six-month trial ended in a mistrial last month, but prosecutors have said they intend to retry them.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro said in a May 24 ruling that before Swartz was forced out of Tyco on Sept. 10, 2002, he signed an agreement making him subject to binding arbitration in any disputes arising from his employment there.

Tyco tried to schedule arbitration before the American Arbitration Association in October 2002, but Swartz refused to consent unless Tyco agreed to delay the arbitration until after the criminal case was resolved, court records show.

Swartz knew “full well” that refusing to arbitrate could be interpreted as a waiver of his right to arbitration, Barbadoro wrote. “He now reaps the consequences of that decision.”

New York prosecutors have accused Kozlowski and Swartz of stealing $170 million by hiding unauthorized bonuses and secretly forgiving loans to themselves. They also accused them of stealing an additional $430 million by lying about the company’s finances to pump up Tyco stock. They face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The defense argues the two earned every dime and that the board of directors and auditors knew about the compensation and never objected.

Swartz became Tyco’s chief financial officer in February 1995, when the company was based in New Hampshire. Locally, he is still the trustee of real estate worth several million dollars.

Some of those properties are under scrutiny as part of questionable Tyco “relocation loans” that paid off the mortgages of some executives.

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Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.com

AP-ES-05-30-04 1338EDT