Alabama Circuit Judge Allwin E. Horn ruled today that former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy must pay about $2.8 billion to shareholders who sued over accounting fraud at the company.
Read that again: $2,800,000,000.
The AP reports that:
The Alabama suit accused Mr. Scrushy of unethical dealings while the company was going broke and complicity in $2.6 billion in fraudulent earnings and asset reports it filed with regulators from 1996 to 2002. The amount shareholders sought included money they claimed he pocketed through sweetheart deals.
Scrushy testified that he had no knowledge of any financial fraud at HealthSouth.
