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Countdown 2003
Kozlowski wins scoundrel vote
The video of his wife's $2 million birthday bash may have swayed voters to rate the former Tyco chief as this year's biggest scoundrel to date.
By CNBC.com Staff
Actor Rob Lowe was one of the first to learn the lesson. Hotel heiress Paris Hilton is among the latest. The lesson: Be careful what you videotape.
Dennis Kozlowski is now finding that out that hard way, as the results of a new CNBC.com on MSN poll indicate.
As Tyco's (TYC, news, msgs) chief executive, Kozlowski and his chief financial officer allegedly stole $600 million from the company. Some of the booty paid for part of a $2 million birthday party for his wife, which was captured on video tape and shown at his trial this year. Now, a videotape has surfaced of his lavish Manhattan apartment, which featured a $6,000 shower curtain.
So it's easy to see why readers in the recent poll put him at the top of a list of scoundrels for 2003. More than 6,200 readers cast ballots; Kozlowski took 46% of the vote.
Other scoundrels, whose deeds may have affected more wallets, weren't videotaped and thus got fewer votes. Consider, for instance, Richard Strong. The founder of mutual fund firm Strong Capital Management allegedly used trading techniques that benefited him but hurt long-term investors. Strong ranked well behind Kozlowski, pulling in just 6% of the votes, which tied him with two others -- including homemaking maven Martha Stewart -- for fifth in the poll.
Scoundrel nominees
Here's a quick look at how the other scoundrel nominees fared.
Bernie Ebbers: 18% of the vote. Ebbers built a tiny phone company into communications giant WorldCom, but the company ultimately plunged into bankruptcy after it admitted to a fat accounting scandal. Now, Ebbers is fighting charges in Oklahoma that he violated the state's securities laws by defrauding investors, among other things. He told CNBC this year that the company simply suffered from a declining business environment.
Dick Grasso: 13%. Grasso personified New York's comeback from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack when he worked so hard to reopen the New York Stock Exchange and stabilize the U.S. financial markets. But this year he personified something else -- greed. The Wall Street Journal uncovered his $140 million pay package, which nearly everyone but the exchange's board and Grasso considered far too much for someone who runs a regulatory organization. (The NYSE regulates itself.)
Richard Scrushy: 8%. The former HealthSouth (HLSH, news, msgs) CEO is wearing an electronic leg bracelet these days so the feds know where he is at all times. His new jewelry came after he was charged with being behind a plot to improperly boost the company's earnings by $2.7 billion over six years.
Martha Stewart: 6%. After founding and taking public the highly successful Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO, news, msgs), Stewart was rich. But federal prosecutors say she wanted more, which, they allege, led her to sell ImClone (IMCL, news, msgs) shares on inside information. Legal proceedings already have begun, and Stewart's trial is expected to start in January.
Frank Quattrone: 6%. During the tech boom, Quattrone shepherded some of the biggest initial public offerings to market as a Credit Suisse First Boston investment banker. When federal investigators began looking into how IPO shares were allocated to the brokers clients, Quattrone forwarded and endorsed an email that urged employees to "catch up on file cleanup'' by destroying some files, the Associated Press reported. The government says this was obstruction of justice. Quattrone has said it was a simple endorsement of routine policy, AP reported. Earlier this year, a jury deadlocked on the issue. The government has announced it will retry Quanttrone on the charges. He tied with Stewart at 6%.
Sam Waksal: 1%. The ImClone co-founder checked in at the Gray Bar Hotel this year after pleading guilty to federal charges stemming from the sale of company stock before news was released that a key drug failed to gain FDA approval. He's spending seven years in prison and will pay $4.3 million in fines and restitution. Waksal is linked to Stewart in his trading scandal, but poll voters paid him little attention.
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