BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 28 (UPI) -- Alabama jurors Tuesday acquitted Richard Scrushy, founder and former head of HealthSouth Corp., of inflating earnings by $2.7 billion for his own gain.
The onetime respiratory therapist who built HealthSouth into a national healthcare titan before it collapsed in an accounting scandal, was acquitted on all federal fraud and conspiracy charges, TheStreet.com reported.
Scrushy, who faced 36 charges in an alleged scheme to create $2.7 billion in bogus profits over a 7-year period, could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison on each charge, if convicted.
More than a dozen former HealthSouth finance executives pleaded guilty ahead of Scrushy's trial, which began in late January and led to jury deliberations that lasted weeks.
Scrushy's legal team spent weeks hammering witnesses, many of them high-level financial managers, who testified against Scrushy.
Apparently, they convinced jurors that Scrushy was not a mastermind but a victim of a lower-level scheme that cost shareholders hundreds of millions.
