The interview, which aired Tuesday on Fox’s “Cavuto”program, took place at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in
Because of the fact that he accepted the risk of being paidprimarily in stock, Koslowski also stood to benefit enormously when the company’sshare price began to lift and the stock split. “And that’s the way the board wanted it,” he told Cavuto, as reported byReuters. “There was a deal inplace. The deal was there, and I earnedevery single penny of that deal.”
What’s more, he added that federal legislation to cap taxdeductions for CEO pay to $1 million in the early 1990s was a catalyst in startingthe trend of offering CEOs performance-based stock options packages, and thatboards were also to blame for CEOs of underperforming companies receiving largeseverance packages.
“I think boards have a hard time looking a CEO in the eyesometimes and saying, ‘You’re out of here,’” Kozlowski said in theinterview. “They’ve worked with this guyfor a long time. And so, in order tomake themselves feel better, they throw a lot of money at them.”
Kozlowski, currently serving an eight-to-25-year federalprison sentence after a jury found him guilty in 2005 of grand larceny, fraudand conspiracy, was also ordered to pay restitution and fines of close to $200million. Regardless, he said he is notguilty and is appealing the verdict, according to Reuters.