NEW YORK Tyco gets permission to sell apartment of former CFO

NEW YORK (AP) -- A judge has given Tyco International permission to sell the swank Upper East Side apartment that had been used by former chief financial officer Mark Swartz.
The apartment, which occupies two floors, will be sold to Tommy Mottola, head of the Sony music group for $9.25 million, well below the asking price of $15.9 million.
A source close to the conglomerate, which is struggling to recover from the alleged looting of $130 million by Swartz and former chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski, told The Boston Globe that the sale is the first of several planned.
The company, the source said, hopes also to sell Kozlowski's New York apartment, where he reportedly had a $6,000 shower curtain, a $15,000 antique umbrella stand, and where he kept paintings by Monet and Renoir.
Kozlowski is accused of illegally avoiding paying $1 million in sales tax on the paintings, which were purchased in New York and allegedly shipped to Tyco offices in Exeter, N.H., and then returned to New York.
Tyco also is interested in selling another New York apartment Swartz reportedly used, the source said.
Tyco spokesman Gary Holmes had no comment on the sale to Mottola, or any other property. Kozlowski's attorney did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
New York Supreme Court Judge Martin Shulman approved a Tyco motion to sell the apartment, but the proceeds will go into an escrow account because the prosecution wants to make sure Swartz did not own the apartment.