Business
Scrushy sues HealthSouth
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 2, 2006
Richard M. Scrushy is suing HealthSouth, the company he founded, for $70 million in severance payments he says are owed to him.
Scrushy was fired as CEO in March 2003, after a $2.6 billion accounting scandal surfaced. However, a federal court acquitted Scrushy of charges against him relating to the scandal. Scrushy says that that action now compels the company to pay him severance. HealthSouth is not commenting on the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, former HealthSouth chief financial officer William Owens has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the massive accounting fraud at the Birmingham, Ala.-based outpatient services giant.
The sentence, handed down Dec. 9, 2005, in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., is believed to be the longest yet in the scandal, which has resulted in 18 former executives facing criminal charges. Owens cooperated with prosecutors and testified against his former boss at the ousted CEO's criminal trial last year.
Meanwhile, a grand jury indictment unsealed in October 2005 accused Scrushy of bribing a government official in Alabama to get a seat on the state certificate-of-need review board. In a superseding indictment filed Dec. 12, 2005, prosecutors added charges of conspiracy and mail fraud. Scrushy has denied all charges.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/01/02/bibf0102.htm.
