NEW YORK — Former Tyco International Chief Financial Officer Mark Swartz was granted parole eight years after he was sent to prison for a $400 million fraud on shareholders.
Swartz, 53, appeared before the state’s Parole Board via teleconference Wednesday from the Lincoln Correctional Facility on West 110th Street and was granted approval, Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said in an email. He is tentatively expected to be released on Jan. 17, Foglia said.
Swartz, who served as Tyco’s CFO from February 1995 to September 2002, and former CEO Dennis Kozlowski were convicted by a jury in Manhattan in 2005 of defrauding shareholders of more than $400 million.
They are both serving sentences of 8 1/3 years to 25 years for stealing from the company and deceiving shareholders.
“We are grateful for the decision granting parole to Mark,” James Mitchell, an attorney representing Swartz with Ballard Spahr Stillman & Friedman said in an email. “This has been a long journey and he looks forward to a happy and productive future.”
Kozlowski, 66, is scheduled to appear before the Parole Board during the week of Dec. 3, Foglia said. Kozlowski sued the board last year after it denied a request for early release due to “concern for the public safety and welfare.”
New York State Supreme Court Justice Carol Huff in February annulled the Parole Board’s decision in the Kozlowski case and granted him a new hearing. An appeals court reversed Huff’s ruling in July, saying the denial of parole was “rational” based on the serious nature of his crimes.