Tyco’s Belnick Faced Firing After Bonus

Former Tyco International Ltd. Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski wanted to get rid of the company’s top lawyer, Mark Belnick, even after approving a $17-million bonus for him for heading off a federal accounting probe, a witness said at Belnick’s criminal trial.

Patricia Prue, Tyco’s former human resources director, testified that Kozlowski told her in 2001 that “Mark was being phased out of the company.”

Defense lawyers say Belnick, 57, got the bonus as a reward for quashing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into Tyco’s accounting practices. Prosecutors say he got the $17 million plus almost $15 million more in no-interest company loans as a payoff for keeping quiet about Kozlowski’s frauds. Belnick used $10 million of the loan money to move to Utah, where Tyco maintained no offices.