Ex-CEO Scrushy Sentenced
Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy has been sentenced to almost seven years in prison for paying a bribe to obtain a spot on a state board that regulates hospitals.
U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller refused to stay the jail sentence for Scrushy or for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, ordered to serve more than seven years in prison. Prosecutors had claimed Scrushy arranged a $500,000 donation to a foundation controlled by Siegelman in exchange for the board seat.
The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports that the sentence “vindicates an embarrassing defeat” for the government when it failed to convict Scrushy at his 2005 trial for aiding a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at HealthSouth.
After Scrushy was turned over to federal marshals last night, his wife, Leslie, said, “It’s a sad day in America today.” The newspaper reports she was wearing a white pantsuit that resembled the one she wore the day her husband was acquitted in the 2005 trial.
