A Busy Week For Scrushy

The time between Christmas and New Year's Day is usually pretty slow, except in retail and, at least this year, for former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.  Earlier in the week, Scrushy entered a "not guilty" plea to federal corruption charges alleging that he paid bribes to former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman for an appointment to a state board.  HealthSouth, the company he founded, responded to his multimillion dollar breach-of-contract suit related to the termination of his employment agreement by countersuing to recover approximately $76 million in salary, bonuses, and stock option awards because he "systematically plundered" the company during the period of its ongoing accounting fraud.  A Reuters story (here) discusses the company's countersuit.  The company also held its first annual meeting since the accounting problems surfaced in March 2003, the only one in its history without Scrushy as a member of the board because he resigned his position in early December rather than face being turned out by shareholders.  An AP story (here) discusses the annual meeting.  With a criminal trial looming along with discovery in the SEC's securities fraud action, things won't slow down for Scrushy and his legal team. (ph)