NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Former Tyco International Ltd. chief executive officer L. Dennis Kozlowski and ex-finance chief Mark Swartz, convicted of looting the company, yesterday filed appeals claiming evidence at trial was insufficient to support a guilty verdict.

Kozlowski, 59, and Swartz, 46, are serving 8 to 25 years in prison after being found guilty last year of grand larceny, securities fraud and falsifying business records. Prosecutors said they stole approximately $137 million from Tyco through unauthorised bonuses and the abuse of company loan programs, and obtained $410 million through illicit stock sales.

The two men were among a series of top executives found guilty of massive frauds and jailed for lengthy terms in the past several years. Last week, former WorldCom Inc. chief executive Bernard Ebbers, 65, began serving a 25-year term for leading an $11 billion accounting fraud that drove his company into bankruptcy. John Rigas, 81, founder of Adelphia Communications Corp., got a 15-year sentence for his role in looting that company.

?In the post-Enron era in which this case was tried, it was disappointing but perhaps not surprising that a jury would not look kindly on corporate executives who received enormous compensation,? Kozlowski said in his 192-page brief. ?We urge this court to disregard the tenor of the times.?

Swartz said in his 126-page brief that evidence produced at trial was ?scant? and the proceeding was fundamentally unfair because Tyco disclosed privileged material only when prosecutors ?determined that the evidence sought would advance their case.?

The former chief financial officer also said his conviction should be reversed because prosecutors made ?gratuitous? references comparing Tyco to the fraud that destroyed Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy trader that declared bankruptcy in December 2001.

?I don?t think their chances are very good,? said former prosecutor Thomas J. Curran, a white collar defence lawyer at Ganfer & Shore LLP in New York. ?They had exceedingly fair trials. They were represented by preeminent counsel.?

Kozlowski and Swartz were both indicted in September 2002 in the grand larceny case. The pair endured two trials ? the first ended in April 2004 in a mistrial.

?There has been a criminalisation of corporate decision-making that 30 years ago would not have been criminalised,? Curran said. ?The pendulum has really swung and I don?t see any evidence of it swinging back yet.?

Kozlowski became a symbol of corporate excess when it was disclosed that he bought a $6,000 shower curtain for a Tyco- subsidized Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan. Last month, he missed a deadline to pay $167 million in court-ordered fines and restitution. His $23 million Nantucket home is among his assets that are now on the market.

Both appeals attack the testimony of David Boies, a name partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP in Armonk, New York. Boies, who served as former US Vice President Al Gore?s lawyer in the 2000 presidential election recount battle, was hired by Tyco in 2002 to conduct an internal investigation.

?Boies, who should never have been allowed to testify against Kozlowski at all, was permitted, over repeated objection, to testify in detail,? Kozlowski?s brief said. ?In effect Boies told the jury that he was a highly skilled lawyer and on the basis of a $12 million investigation conducted by his firm, he concluded that Kozlowski was guilty of the crimes charged.?

The brief also claimed Kozlowski was ?severely prejudiced? by Boies? testimony on a conversation Kozlowski allegedly had with Swartz.

According to Boies, Swartz said it had been a mistake to take one of the bonuses at issue during the trial, and blamed Kozlowski for telling him to do it. The ex-CEO?s appeal said the Boies testimony was wrongly admitted at trial.

Boies didn?t return calls seeking comment. Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, whose office prosecuted the case in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, declined to comment.

Kozlowski?s appeal also contends the ex-CEO had the authority to approve a $20 million finder?s fee to ex-Tyco director Frank Walsh, a payment prosecutors characterized as theft. Kozlowski said he was entitled to the $77 million in bonuses he took, that he had the authority to use $1.9 million of Tyco?s money to buy artwork for the company, and that his borrowing $12.8 million from Tyco to purchase five paintings for his personal use, including a Monet, wasn?t a crime.

?Although Kozlowski was charged with stealing vast amounts of money from Tyco, the evidence demonstrates that, under Tyco?s pay-for-performance bonus system, he was entitled to all of the compensation he received,? his appeal claimed.

Swartz also said in his brief to the appellate division that he earned everything he received under the company bonus plan.

Kozlowski also argued that the Manhattan appeals court should reverse his conviction on the securities fraud counts. The charges that he violated federal laws regarding proxy statements and 10-K forms are the jurisdiction of federal courts, not New York state courts, he said in the court filings.

If the appeals fail, Swartz and Kozlowski won?t qualify for parole until January 2014, according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services Web site.

Tyco, based in Bermuda and operating out of West Windsor, New Jersey, is the world?s biggest maker of electronic connectors, industrial valves and security systems.

The case is People v. Kozlowski, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, Manhattan.