Former Tyco International Ltd. finance chief Mark Swartz made it a practice to pay back millions of dollars in company loans and interest every year, a Tyco accountant testified Wednesday at the trial of Swartz and former Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski.
Sheila Rex, a prosecution witness and accountant for Tyco, said during her second day of cross-examination that when Swartz left the company he owed nothing under a loan program that has played a prominent role at the embezzlement trial.
Swartz paid down the loans, which once climbed to $6.5 million, at the end of each business year, she said.
"Mr. Swartz made it a practice to pay down (the loans) by the end of each fiscal year?" defense attorney Jim Mitchell asked before showing records for September 1998 and 1999 indicating a zero balance in the Swartz account.
"Yes," Rex replied.
Mitchell later asked, "Is it fair to say over the life of the loans he probably paid millions of dollars in interest?" "Probably," Rex said.
