Huge bonuses? Nothing wrong with that, the defense for Tyco’s former top lawyer insisted yesterday during opening statements in a $17 million embezzlement trial.
But Manhattan prosecutors say the $17 million represents grand larceny – and that Tyco’s former No. 3 man, Mark Belnick, stole the money from the company by accepting it as a bonus without informing board members.
Belnick’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, argued the size of the bonus shouldn’t be held against Belnick, who deserved every penny. “We compensate our executives well,” said Weingarten.
“Joe Torre gets paid $19 million a year for sticking a toothpick in his mouth and bringing in Mariano Rivera,” he added, over the objections of prosecutors.
Assistant District Attorney Amy Schwartz argued that it’s not the size alone that’s fishy about Belnick’s bonus – it’s Tyco top lawyer’s blatant, intentional thievery in bypassing the needed approvals.
When it came to lining his pocket, Schwartz told the eight-man, four-woman jury, “Rules were irrelevant and money was king.”
Belnick, 57, took the bonus as a reward for heading off a 2000 Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the company’s accounting.
He is also charged with securities fraud for allegedly conspiring with former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz to inflate stock prices by misrepresenting the company’s health, and with falsifying business records to conceal from board members more than $4 million he owed in company loans.
Belnick, who served as the second-chair prosecutor in the congressional investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
The trial follows on the heels of last month’s mistrial in Kozlowski and Swartz’s own six-month embezzlement case.
Belnick’s trial is shaping up to be “Tyco Lite,” with only six weeks of testimony promised. Testimony begins Monday.