Scrushy ordered to pay $2.9 billion
Written on June 21, 2009
An Alabama court Thursday found former HealthSouth Corp. Chief Executive Richard Scrushy liable for fraud related to the company’s massive accounting scandal and ordered him to pay $2.9 billion.
"The judgment is hereby entered in favor of the plaintiff and against Richard M. Scrushy in the total sum of $2,876,103,000," said the judgment by Alabama state Judge Allwin Horn.
"Scrushy knew of and actively participated in fraud," the judgment said in a civil case brought against him by HealthSouth stockholders payday loans.
He was acquitted of criminal charges related to the fraud in 2005, but is serving a seven-year prison term in a bribery case.
Scrushy, who came to court in leg shackles in May to testify in the civil case, said he had no knowledge of financial problems at HealthSouth (HLS), reiterating the argument used at his 2005 criminal trial.
Filed in: management, online.