The lawsuit accuses Mr Swartz of fraud, aiding the firm's former chief executive to hide wrongdoing, and unjust enrichment.

And it seeks a court order forcing Mr Swartz to return all compensation and benefits paid to him by Tyco during the period of alleged misconduct.

Mr Swartz already faces criminal charges of fraud filed by government prosecutors, and has pleaded innocent.

Cleaning-up

The civil suit claims Mr Swartz used company funds to buy himself a $16.5m penthouse apartment and smaller items such as Elton John concert tickets.

Tyco has been embroiled in controversy for more than a year after accounting errors, an aborted break-up plan, the abrupt departure of its chief executive Dennis Kozlowski and his subsequent tax evasion charges.

Mr Kozlowski left Tyco in June and was later charged with avoiding sales tax on art purchases worth millions of dollars and then with looting the company's funds.

The firm is based in Bermuda and is a conglomerate manufacturing items as varied as coat hangers and security systems.

Earlier this month, Tyco said it would close 300 plants and save $1bn by 2006, after unearthing more accounting problems in its Asian and European businesses.

Chairman Edward Breen vowed to overhaul the company and "clean the crap up".