The indictment alleges that they "misused and misappropriated most of" the $7bn, "including diverting "more than $1.6bn into undisclosed personal loans to Stanford himself".

Mr. Lay did not report selling the stock, but a lawyer for Enron disclosed earlier this week that some shares had been used to repay a previously undisclosed loan from Enron.

The SEC asked Kozlowski, Swartz, and Belnick to restore the funds that they took from Tyco in the form of undisclosed loans and compensations.

Sports fans hoped Mr. Rigas would stabilize the financially precarious Sabres; Adelphia's undisclosed loans include $130 million to a Rigas-controlled partnership that owns the team.

Tyco said Mr. Belnick was fired because he was impeding the company's internal investigation into whether it had paid the personal expenses of its senior executives and made undisclosed loans to them.

They are accused of using billions of dollars of undisclosed company-backed loans to do everything from buying stock in Adelphia to building a private golf course.

Such undisclosed loans are considered more likely to distort an executive's behaviour than borrowings that are open and known to all.

The US Department of Justice claims that $1.6 billion (£1 billion) was diverted to Stanford himself through undisclosed personal loans.

In 1995, Selig took an undisclosed loan, albeit for only 90 days.

The undisclosed loans came from programs Tyco created to help employees pay taxes on stock and to help employees relocate near Tyco's offices.