Piggy’s in hog heaven!
Dennis Kozlowski – the former Tyco International head honcho who spent six and a half years behind bars for fleecing company coffers of more than $100 million – admitted to The New York Times: “I was piggy.”
The 68-year-old ex-tycoon was notified by state parole officials last week that for the first time in nearly a decade he is completely free of supervision, the paper reported.
He talked about life in the slammer, his three years on a work-release program in Manhattan and about his rosy future.
“I’ve waited for freedom for a long time,” Kozlowski told the paper at his modest, two-bedroom rental, describing life with his third wife, Kimberly, whom he married a year ago.
“She’s the best thing that ever happened to me – ever,” Kozlowski said about his wife, who told The Times she wears a cubic zirconium wedding ring worth less than $300.
He described the joy of spending time with his grandkids – and how he enjoys fresh avocados and even root canals these days.
In his previous incarnation, Kozlowski enjoyed the good life – replete with a Fifth Avenue home sporting a $6,000 gold-and-burgundy shower curtain – for which he landed on The Post’s cover with the headline: “OINK, OINK.”
The poster child for corporate greed was convicted in 2005 of stealing $134 million from Tyco to fuel a lavish lifestyle that included a $2 million toga party birthday bash for his ex-wife on the Italian island of Sardinia in 2001.
At one preposterous party he hosted, an ice sculpture of a chubby boy that peed vodka. He even spent $15,000 on a poodle umbrella stand.
Kozlowski told The Times that fellow inmates in the “gated community” of Mid-State Correctional Facility liked him – calling him “Koz” and asking him for financial pointers.
In his apartment, he has a model of The Endeavour, the 130-foot yacht built to compete in 1934’s America’s Cup that he used to own. He was forced to sell it in 2006 for $13.1 million, to help pay court-ordered restitution.
Kozlowski said he is no longer rolling in mega-dough and now does “low-level consulting” on mergers and acquisitions in a small Midtown office. He also serves on the board of the Fortune Society, which helps ex-cons.
He acknowledges making mistakes but insists to The Times that he was unfairly convicted – particularly in light of how few top dogs have recently been prosecuted for Wall Street shenanigans.
“After 2008,” he said, “nobody was prosecuted.”