Former HealthSouth chief executive fields questions at federal courthouse

Richard Scrushy testified for six hours during a deposition and will return for questioning by attorneys who say the former HealthSouth chief executive swindled their clients. In 2005, Scrushy, a co-founder of the physical therapy chain, was found not guilty in Birmingham's federal court of committing fraud at HealthSouth. Five former chief financial officers pleaded guilty to similar charges and fingered their former boss in the $2.7 billion fraud. Scrushy is about one year into an 82-month federal prison term levied after a Montgomery-based federal jury in 2006 found him guilty of bribing former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. A federal judge ordered him brought to Birmingham to answer questions in a civil lawsuit filed by HealthSouth shareholders seeking at least $1 billion.