Richard Scrushy lost his attempt to have the Alabama Supreme Court overturn the $2.8 billion civil judgment levied against him for the fraud that almost sank HealthSouth Corp. The state's highest court wrote in an opinion Friday that Scrushy's appeal was without merit. He was ordered to pay the money in 2009 after a Jefferson County Circuit Court trial at which he was dubbed "the CEO of the fraud" in the massive HealthSouth accounting scandal. The levy was to compensate the company for the damage inflicted by the fraud and the smokescreen loans and bogus expenses that kept it hidden from investors and regulators. Scrushy, in federal prison in Texas after a bribery conviction, lost on all issues he raised during appeal. The court said HealthSouth shareholders were legally entitled to sue him for damages; that the statute of limitations had not run out; and that the issues were properly decided in Alabama state court.
