Dennis Kozlowski cultivated a culture of greed and excess while at the helm of Tyco, writes Conor O'Clery, in New York

A $15,000 (€15,320) umbrella stand has come to symbolise corporate greed and extravagance in the United States and, in the process, backed up the recommendations of a blue-ribbon business commission that executives should be prevented in future from looting their companies.

The 1840s French antique umbrella stand, in the shape of a poodle, was acquired by an interior decorator for former Tyco chief executive Mr Dennis Kozlowski, at company expense, to adorn Mr Kozlowski's $18 million Manhattan apartment, which was also provided by Tyco, unknown to its shareholders.

The former Tyco chief executive, who is awaiting trial on $600 million fraud charges, also got a $17,000 travelling toilet box, a $2,200 gilt metal wastebasket and a $6,300 sewing basket among other expensive items the company paid for to adorn his apartment, according to a report by Tyco into the culture of greed and excess cultivated by Mr Kozlowski. He was supplied with several homes, including a $28 million home in Florida and the $18 million apartment in New York, furnished at a cost of $11 million.

The Tyco report coincides with the publication of a set of recommendations on how to prevent the excesses of greedy corporate executives, compiled by the US Conference Board's Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprise.

The report of the not-for-profit board, composed of leading chief executives, regulators and investors, is another attempt to restore credibility in the US financial markets. It calls for stricter rules on stock options and closer linking of executive compensation with long-term company performance. The group also wants executives to be made to disclose their sales of company stock in advance.

"Public trust requires public confidence that markets are not rigged," said Mr Peter Peterson, the commission's co-chairman and chairman of the Blackstone Group.

"The ratcheting up of compensation has been obscene," billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Mr Warren Buffett told a meeting of the commission on Tuesday. Directors on compensation committees too often caved in to executives, he said.

"There has been a tendency not to put Dobermans on the compensation committee, but to put cocker spaniels," he added.

Whether the commission's urgings will be taken seriously by corporate America is unclear. Its recommendation that companies record stock options as expenses for example, which usually means lower earnings, has been rejected by professional business associations in the US.

Former General Electric (GE) chairman Mr Jack Welch, once a corporate icon and author of best-seller Straight from the Gut, has also today become a symbol of excessive compensation. The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday it was setting up an "informal investigation" into the perks he enjoyed in retirement. In a high-profile divorce case, Mr Welch's estranged wife, Jane, claimed that his retirement benefits included luxury housing, use of corporate jets, a car, driver, cook and housemaid, security, financial planning, meals, laundry, flowers and golf club membership.

The investigation is likely to force other companies to urgently review extravagant benefits given to retired executives, often without full disclosure to shareholders.

Mr Welsh, in a column he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, denied that GE paid for his personal meals or supplied a cook, but undertook to give up most of his perks and to consult free of charge rather than for $86,000 a year.

"Perception matters," he said. "In today's reality my employment contract could be mis-portrayed as excessive."

His decision, which he said "feels right in my gut", could spell trouble for fellow corporate retirees with multimillion deals, as it may be seen as an admission that it was wrong to accept the largesse in the first place.

"Anyone who's nervously hoping that their retirement package isn't uncovered right now might very well want to give up some things," said Mr Roger Kenny, managing partner at Boardroom Consultants of New York.

Mr Kozlowski's interior designer, Ms Wendy Valliere, defended the purchase of the $15,000 umbrella stand as one of a number of "perfectly normal accoutrements" in a luxury Manhattan apartment. "It's not just some stupid dog umbrella stand, it's a very unique, beautiful piece," she told the Wall Street Journal.

The toilette box, she said, was a 1760s Venetian object of leather and bronze that sat on a shelf in Mr Kozlowski's bedroom. She said she had received a call from the former Tyco chief complaining that the toilette kit had been portrayed on television as a portable toilet that he travelled with.