Birmingham, AL – Jurors acquitted HealthSouth founder and fired C-E-O Richard Scrushy on all charges Tuesday in a multi-billion dollar earnings overstatement at the medical services company. Scrushy had been charged with fraud, false corporate reporting and making false statements to regulators. He was the first C-E-O charged under the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reporting law.
The defense blamed the massive fraud on Scrushy aides including all five finance chiefs who served under him at HealthSouth. Fifteen former HealthSouth executives have pleaded guilty since 2003.