Bermuda based Allied World Assurance Company has launched a legal suit against Tyco International Limited and the company?s former chief executive officer L. Dennis Kozlowski, former general counsel Mark A. Belnick, former chief financial officer Mark H. Swartz and former director Frank E. Walsh Jr. AWAC did not respond to a query about its suit by Press time but the writ filed with the Bermuda Supreme Court on October 18 cites the matter of the Bermuda International Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1993.

The AWAC suit is one of many civil and criminal probes involving Tyco executives. Mr. Belnick, who was cleared of charges he took a $17 million bonus without authorisation in July, is suing a unit of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. to force the insurer to pay part of his legal bills.

Mr. Belnick said in the suit that Hartford?s Twin City Fire Insurance unit won?t pay his legal bills or those of Mr. Kozlowski, Mr. Swartz and Mr. Walsh. He is seeking part of a $25 million policy that was taken out to cover the legal expenses of Tyco officers and directors.

Last month, Twin City filed a writ in the Bermuda Supreme Court against Belnick, Kozlowski, Swartz, Walsh and Tyco last month. The insurer is seeking a ruling that they aren?t entitled to coverage.

Meanwhile, Kozlowski and Swartz are scheduled to be re-tried in January on charges that they looted $600 million from the company through theft and stock fraud. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in April. Walsh pleaded guilty in December 2002 to accepting a secret payment for brokering Tyco?s acquisition of CIT Group Inc.

Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that ?The Hartford policy is one of two the former Tyco executives are seeking to use to pay their defence bills. A separate policy issued by a Chubb Corp. unit is to pay the first $25 million of their defence costs. The Hartford policy, described in the suit as an ?excess policy,? would pay legal costs once the Chubb policy is exhausted.?

The news service reports that according to Belnick, ?defence costs incurred by the four men and other Tyco directors who have been sued ?are sufficient to exhaust the limits? of the $25 million Chubb policy and that the Twin City excess policy will have to be tapped.

Bloomberg news reports that Chubb is contesting its obligation to pay the legal bills for Kozlowski, Swartz and Walsh, but Bloomberg news reports that the company has agreed to pay some of Belnick?s legal bills.