Business
Former HealthSouth exec sentenced
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 3, 2006
The stiffest sentence yet in the HealthSouth accounting scandal has been handed down against former controller Hannibal "Sonny" Crumpler, who was ordered to spend eight years in prison.
Crumpler was sentenced on June 15 by Judge Virginia Emerson Hopkins in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala. A jury had previously convicted him of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and submitting false claims to auditors and ordered him to forfeit nearly $1.4 million in criminal proceeds.
Crumpler worked for the Birmingham, Ala.-based HealthSouth from 1986 to 2000 in various capacities. Prosecutors alleged that he conspired with other executives to inflate HealthSouth's earnings, helping to add nearly $2.7 billion in fictitious income over several years. They also said he later lied to auditors conducting HealthSouth's 2001 audit.
In the wake of the accounting scandal, which first surfaced in 2003, prosecutors said 15 former executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and Crumpler was convicted by a jury. HealthSouth founder Richard M. Scrushy was accused of masterminding the scheme, but a jury cleared him of wrongdoing after a lengthy trial.
Previously, the longest prison term was handed down against former HealthSouth chief financial officer William Owens, who was sentenced in December 2005 to five years in prison.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/07/03/bibf0703.htm.
