Topeka ? The list includes a 2001 Ferrari worth nearly $230,000, as well as carpets costing $269,000 and window treatments priced at nearly $128,000. Also included are a $15,000 pool table and a $5,200 billiards light.

The list even includes knickknacks, such as $4,625 worth of pillows and a $1,200 bronze alligator.

It’s all on the list of property that federal prosecutors hope to recover from former Westar Energy Inc. chief executive David Wittig. The list was part of a 40-count grand jury indictment and accompanying attachment made public Thursday.

Wittig and Douglas T. Lake, Westar’s former executive vice president and chief strategic officer, are accused of trying to “systematically loot” Westar. The indictment alleges the two men “perverted corporate programs for their own personal profit.”

Besides accusing Wittig and Lake of conspiracy, wire fraud, other corporate misconduct and attempting to cover up their actions, the indictment paints a portrait of a corporate executive — Wittig — who lived a lavish lifestyle.

“If I were a prosecutor, I would have to think about the impression the list of these items would make on a jury and the general public,” said Niki Christopher, an attorney for the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayers Board, a state agency representing residential power consumers and small businesses.

Each of the 40 counts against Wittig and Lake carries a potential prison sentence of five to 20 years. Prosecutors are also seeking the return of compensation and benefits totaling $25 million from Wittig and $7 million from Lake, as well as forfeiture of Wittig’s mansion, nearly $2 million in art and furnishings, and Wittig’s Ferrari.

Wittig lives in the west Topeka mansion that once belonged to Alf Landon, the two-term Kansas governor and 1936 Republican presidential nominee who died in 1987. The indictment said Wittig used illicitly gained company stock as collateral to get loans for a $6 million renovation of his home, as well as the money spent on furnishings.

The indictment also said Wittig spent $6.5 million of Westar’s money to renovate the suite where his office was located, adding a gourmet kitchen, dining room, bathroom, dressing area and a $29,000 custom-built television wall unit.

Such allegations did not surprise attorneys, like Christopher, who had participated in regulatory proceedings involving Westar before the Kansas Corporation Commission. Some of those attorneys had pursued rumors of lavish spending on Wittig’s home and the executive suite for months.

Wittig, 48, of Topeka, resigned as CEO in November 2002, and was convicted this year of federal fraud charges unrelated to Westar business. Lake, 53, of New Canaan, Conn., has been on administrative leave since December 2002, though a New York law firm defending him has described his departure as a firing.

The two men are embroiled in a dispute with Westar over employment agreements they had with the company, which Westar has calculated as worth $59 million over their lifetimes but the indictment suggests were worth $100 million.

The law firm representing Lake, Hughes Hubbard & Reed, issued a statement on his behalf saying that the criminal case involves the employment agreement dispute.

The Landon mansion in Topeka is owned by former Westar CEO David Wittig. Federal authorities are seeking the return of 5 million from Wittig and forfeiture of the mansion, including nearly million in art and interior furnishings, as well as his 2001 Ferrari.

“The corporation spent over $9 million in legal fees to retain an outside law firm to conduct an investigation to justify firing Mr. Lake and other members of senior management and repudiating their employment agreements,” the statement said.

Eric Melgren, the U.S. Attorney for Kansas, declined to respond to the statement. He said his office attached a list of furnishings to be clear about what it is seeking to recover, and so that “they’re not free to dispose of it as they want.”

“In order to prioritize our claim to it, in order in essence to put a lien on it, we have to identify what the property is,” Melgren said.

Jim Zakoura, an Overland Park attorney representing large Westar customers, said the spending “was so far out of kilter” that rumors about it had made Wittig a lightning rod.

A 376-page report issued by Westar’s directors in May said that for both the renovation of the Landon mansion and the executive office suite, Wittig hired New York interior designer Marc Edward Charbonnet, who was listed in 2002 as one of the top 100 architects and interior designers in the world by Architectural Digest magazine.

Thus, Christopher said, she was not shocked at the amounts the indictment claimed were spent.

For a top-notch designer, she said, “They don’t just come in and paint your kitchen and add a Formica countertop and call it a day.”

However, she acknowledged that such sums are likely to stun many Kansans. According to the U.S. Census bureau, the median value of an owner-occupied home in Kansas in 2000 was $83,500, or less than a third of what Wittig’s carpet cost.

“If you’re wealthy, you shouldn’t be showing it off, not to the extent that he did,” Christopher said. “We’ve said all along that there was a lot of excess going on here.”