...| #8| || Faculty Use Only TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Abstract --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------5 & 6 The role of Auditors at HealthSouth ---------------------------------------- 7 & 8 SEC Investigation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------9&10 Impact on Stakeholders ---------------------------------------11, 12, 13 & 14 Outcome and Fairness In Punishment ---------------------------------------- 15, 16 & 17 Conclusion -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18 References-------------------------------------------------------------------------------19, 20 & 21 ABSTRACT This paper will investigate the financial reporting scandals of the past decade at HealthSouth and the resulting U.S. legislative attempts to impose ethical behavior and control the incidence of new reporting problems via Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. This paper begins with a brief historical perspective followed by assertions of...
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...Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil law suit against HealthSouth Corporation and Richard M. Scrushy. The SEC charged that the company inflated their books by $1.9 billion since 1999 (SEC, 2003). The filing of these charges had a multiple impact on the stakeholders. The ethical dilemmas that caused the rise and fall of Richard M. Scrushy will be reviewed. Scrushy’s Beginnings Scrushy began his humble beginnings in Alabama. Watson (2003), biography of Scrushy reports he dropped out of high school and worked as a gas station attendant and later a bricklayer. He eventually returned back to school and earned his high school diploma. Later Scrushy enrolled at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham. He did a year at Jefferson State and a year of clinical training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Scrushy graduated in 1974 as a certified respiratory therapist (Watson, 2003, p. 1). Once Scrushy graduated with the certification of a respiratory therapist, he began climbing the ladder. His accomplishments were as follows: * 1974 - Taught at University of Alabama Birmingham. * 1979 -1984 Vice President at LifeMark HealthCare Firm. * 1984-2003 Founded HealthSouth in Little Rock Alabama. The company began with the four colleagues from Lifemark and $50,000. Scrushy also became CEO and Chairman of HealthSouth. * 1985- Scrushy moved HealthSouth to Birmingham....
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...use this as a reference. Table of Contents 1. Assignment cover sheet p. 0 2. Title page: HealthSouth and the Scrushy Way p. 1 3. Table of Contents p. 2 4. Introduction p. 3 5. Government Subsidies p. 3 6. Signs of Corruption p. 4 7. Ethical issues of HealthSouth p. 5 8. Management of HealthSouth p. 5 9. Intimidation and Cooperation p. 6 10. Culture of Corruption p. 7 11. Lavish Lifestyle and Philanthropy p. 8 12. Impact on Stakeholders p. 9 13. Charges p. 10 14. Outcome and Fairness of Punishment p. 10 15. Conclusion p. 12 16. References p. 13 HealthSouth and the Scrushy Way Richard Scrushy overcame challenging teenage years, dropping out of high school and later obtaining his GED to become one of the most successful executives in the United States. Scrushy did so by subsequently getting his respiratory therapist certification and opening his own rehabilitation center, an all-in-one medical facility that led many to copy his idea. Scrushy founded HealthSouth in 1996 using $1 million in seed capital and turned it into a hugely successful medical services empire worth over $4 billion at its prime (Haddad, Weintraub, & Grow, 2003). HealthSouth had become the largest provider of outpatient surgery, rehabilitation, and diagnostic and imaging services as well...
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...HealthSouth: The Scrushy Way Vonetta M. Henderson Northcentral University Introduction The Enron and Tyco scandals brought visibility to corporate scandals. The magnitude of these scandals resulted in the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act in 2002. Richard M. Scrushy and HealthSouth Corporation were the first CEO and company to be indicted under the SOX Act. HealthSouth was charged with filing false financial statements with the SEC to hid poor financial conditions from Wall Street. An audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that HealthSouth overstated its cumulative earnings between $3.8 billion to $4.6 billion (Weld, Bergevin, & Magrath, 2004). Although Scrushy was charged with 85 counts, he pled not-guilty, claiming that he was unaware of the fraudulent activities that had occurred. Scrushy was later exonerated as the investigation into the company found no evidence that Scrushy orchestrated or participated in any financial wrongdoings. Five financial executives and 10 other company officials pled guilty to a variety of charges. Background Richard M. Scrushy founded Amcare, Inc. in 1984. The company opened its first facility in Little Rock, Arkansas and one year later opened a facility in Birmingham and changed its name to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Corporation (HRC). In 1986, HRC went public with its initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ stock exchange (HealthSouth Corporation, 2010). In 1988, HRC moved to...
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...HealthSouth: Fraud, Greed & Corporate Governance Marilyn J. Bordeaux HCS 5339 Rachael Kehoe HealthSouth: Fraud, Greed & Corporate Governance During the 1990s, Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corporation, engineered many acquisitions of rehabilitation clinics, outpatient surgical care operators, nursing homes and other health care companies. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the company and Scrushy of inflating earnings to the tune of $1.4 billion since 1999. In November 2003, a federal grand jury indicted Scrushy on 85 counts including conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and charges related to overstating HealthSouth’s earnings by nearly $3.0 billion. According to federal investigators, the company overstated earnings to meet analysts’ earning estimates, while hiding the accounting fraud from the auditors. However, questions were raised whether the auditors failed to find or simply overlooked the fraud at HealthSouth. Central to the investigation was the issue of what role Scrushy played in “cooking the books.” However, as the case unfolded, it highlighted many other issues such as: The role of Board of Directors in corporate governance; the role of the auditors; the effect of conflict of interest between an accounting firm and its consulting arm on auditing; whether the relationship between an investment bank and a company affects the quality of the bank’s research reports on the company; whether the executive...
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...There has been five HealthSouth CFOs that have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, Beam being one of them. Richard Scrushy, founder and former CEO of HealthSouth Corp., denied that he was involved in this fraud and 36 of his fraud charges were dropped. But the following year, in 2006, Scrushy and former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman were found guilty of federal bribery charges and are now serving a six-year sentence at a Teaxas prison. Aaron Beam is a co-founder of HealthSouth. In 2005, Beam was convicted of Bank Fraud. He was sentenced to three months in jail and was fined for insider trading. He admits he made mistakes at HealthSouth and he documented the birth, the rise, and eventual crash of HealthSouth. Investigation started focusing on accounting fraud of HealthSouth in 1996, Beam decided to leave in 1997. Aaron Beam then wrote a book where he states the following information: Beam has said that fraudulent and unethical behavior has been going on for a while in the Business Industry. He also says that he wrote the book because he knows that there is a lot of unethical behavior in the leading markets and has also lead to banks closing. “What are some necessary checks and balances for ensuring accounting fraud doesn’t happen?” Board of directors plays a big role. An auditor’s job did not use to include fraud activity before. Accounting firms today are turning to forensic accountants because of this. Beam explains that the Board of Directors does a very poor job...
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...salary of $900,000 in 2011, but due to stock options he will receive 376.2 million dollars in shares (Satariano, 2012). Now as the company grows those stock options will increase drastically, making his yearly salary look like chump change. This is what encourages CEO’s to commit financial fraud by altering the company’s books to drive the stock price up, which drives his pay up. In 2002 the CEO of HealthSouth sold $100 million dollars in stock just days before the company posted a huge loss. HealthSouth over the course of seven years beginning in 1996 overstated their income by 2.7 Billion dollars ("Sec charges healthsouth," 2003). The CEO was accused of having senior accountants inflate the earnings of its facilities in order to drive up the company’s value. In addition they also misreported the sale of technology to a related party resulting in 29 million in overstatements as well. By middle of 2002 HealthSouth’s assets were also overstated by more than 800 million dollars ("Accountant describes how," 2005). How the fraud happened was the assistant controller at HealthSouth would download the companies true earnings on his computer and figure how much was needed to be made up to meet wall street’s predictions (Hamilton). While the...
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...The Fraud Triangle 9/22/2012 Allison Walton | The Fraud Triangle The fraud triangle are conditions for fraud arising from fraudulent financial reporting and misappropriation of assets. These conditions are: a. Incentive/Pressure b. Opportunities c. Attitude/Rationalization The fraud triangle is depicted by the following image: Incentive/Pressure Management or other employees will have incentives or circumstances of pressure to commit fraud. If the decision is made by management to report fraudulent financial statements, the most common reason for this will be threat by economic, industry or entity operating conditions to the financial stability and profitability of the company. Excessive pressure is placed on management to meet the forecast of an analyst, company projections or to repay debt obligations. The personal net worth of the stockholders and board of directors may be materially threatened by the company’s financial performance, and management may feel obligated to meet these demands. Management may inflate stock prices to preserve their reputation and be required to do whatever it takes to meet the goal. The bonuses of management may be tied to the company’s earnings and this is a big motivator for fraudulent reporting (Fox School of Business 2009). The misappropriation of assets in a company may be done because of personal financial pressure such as a home foreclosure, or a non-sharable problem such as drug use or gambling debts (Wells 2007)...
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...Intro to HealthSouth Fraud Case Review In 2003, HealthSouth was accused of one the largest accounting fraud cases in healthcare history and those involved are still being tried today, nine years later. HealthSouth was founded in Birmingham, Alabama in the year 1984 by a respiratory therapist name Richard Scrushy. By the year 1999, HealthSouth had grown to house 230 surgical centers, 120 inpatient hospitals, 5 medical centers, 129 diagnostic centers and 1379 outpatient rehab centers and was worth an estimated billion dollars. It was revealed that HealthSouth started their downward spiral in the year 2002, which paralleled the timeframe that Scrushy sold of ~ $100,000 in HealthSouth Stock Options. Within the following 6 plus months to follow, the FBI announced allegations against HealthSouth and opened a criminal investigation for probable SEC violations. The FBI investigation initially uncovered wrong doings from the years 1999-2002 where Scrushy had overstated his salary 1 million + dollars to meet expectations of shareholders and Wallstreet. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning, and as forensic accountants dug deeper, the FBI soon found that HealthSouth’s corporate accountants were adjusting entries to offset liabilities, reduce expense accounts and state elevated salaries to balance their bookkeeping. It was reported ~$373 million dollars of cash on the books was fictitious. It was eventually revealed that all four Accounting Statements were incorrect and that...
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...“The HealthSouth Scandal of 2003” SERRAON, ABIGAIL E. Accountancy 4Y2-1 ENGR. ANTHONIO CHAN March, 2016 INTRODUCTION Embezzlement, misappropriation, cheating or stealing is a form of fraudulent act done with an organization. There are television and newspaper stories nearly every day about all kinds of corporate schemes and scams. Behind every fraud is a person or a group of people who has taken what is not theirs to take. Some of those people intended to steal they just never thought they would get caught. Others were pulled into the original crime or some aspect of the cover-up and before they knew it they were labeled a co-conspirator. This study will examine the people behind the much publicized fraud scheme at HealthSouth. Some did not set out to commit white-collar crime but found themselves as defendants in criminal trials for fraud. In the HealthSouth case in observation, real life examples of people who were "just doing their job" but at some point crossed the line from law-abiding citizens to law-breaking villains. Seemingly small compromises in ethics and morality led to a full-scale commitment to fraud. Finally, we will conclude that nobody sets out in their career to end up in prison cleaning toilets and on the front page of the Wall Street Journal after they are arrested for fraud. At some point, though, many end up that way. A. Background of the Study The study all about the recent accounting scandal that were reported : “The HealthSouth Scandal...
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...HealthSouth Corporation: Fraud, Greed and Corporate Governance Manmohan D. Chaubey, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University One College Place Du Bois, PA 15801 (USA) Tel: 814-375-4846 Fax: 814-375-4784 Email: mdc13@psu.edu Case for ICMC2006 International Conference on Management Cases 4-5 December 2006 IMT Ghaziabad, India HealthSouth Corporation: Fraud, Greed and Corporate Governance During the 1990s, Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corporation, engineered many acquisitions of rehabilitation clinics, outpatient surgical care operators, nursing homes and other health care companies. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the company and Scrushy of inflating earnings to the tune of $1.4 billion since 1999. In November 2003, a federal grand jury indicted Scrushy on 85 counts including conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and charges related to overstating HealthSouth’s earnings by nearly $3.0 billion. According to federal investigators, the company overstated earnings to meet analysts’ earning estimates, while hiding the accounting fraud from the auditors. However, questions were raised whether the auditors failed to find or simply overlooked the fraud at HealthSouth. Central to the investigation was the issue of what role Scrushy played in “cooking the books.” However, as the case unfolded, it highlighted many other issues such as: The role of Board of Directors in corporate governance; the role of the auditors; the...
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...The Scrushy Influence Table of Contents Table of Content…………………………………………………………………………………. 2 Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..4 Richard Scrushy-Biography……………………………………………………………………….5 Health South History………………………………………………………………………………6 Health South Down Fall…………………………………………………………………………...7 Sentence…………………………………………………………………………………………...8 Sentence…………………………………………………………………………………………...9 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….10 References……………………………………………………………………………………….11 Abstract This paper looks at the rise and fall of the Health South Corporation along with its founder and CEO, Richard Scrushy. One of the biggest fraud cases in recent history, this one company over- stated its revenue by four billion dollars, causing many people to lose both their life savings and their jobs. Over fifteen people received jail sentences, and even the Governor of Alabama went to prison. Richard Scrushy was sentenced to seventy (70) months in prison. Introduction Mr. Scrushy started his company in 1986, and by 2003 he had lost everything. However, what happened in those seventeen years was spectacular. Scrushy started a small firm which grew into a nationwide company employing over sixty thousand employees. By all appearances he was the golden boy in the medical insurance industry - acquiring other, smaller companies in order to expand his own corporation and enhance his own income. During those...
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...REVIEW OF ACCOUNTING ETHICS: HEALTHSOUTH CORPORATION SCANDAL Dannie Lover Professor Seedgrass Financial Accounting South University October 9, 2013 THE ORGANIZATION In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged HealthSouth Corporation, the nations’ largest provider of outpatient surgery, diagnostic and rehabilitative healthcare services, and its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Richard M. Scrushy with a massive accounting fraud. Scrushy, along with several of his former colleagues allegedly inflated HealthSouth’s pre-tax earnings. [Knapp] Founded in 1984 in Birmingham, Alabama, with more than 50,000 employees and nearly 2000 facilities across all states, HealthSouth earned recognition as a top-five performer in the S&P 500 index. This thriving company grew rapidly and became publicly traded within two years of existence. The company is believed to have overstated its profits by at least 1.4 billion since 1999, in order to meet or exceed Wall Street earnings expectations and maintain market price for stock. [Press Release 2003] THE ALLEGIATION The allegation came just after an earnings restatement and insider-trading charge triggered the investigation, sending HealthSouth stock tumbling to a record low. [Romano 2003] Many attempts at whistle blowing were suppressed, when employees expressed concerns due to falsification of documents. One accountant in particular, was quickly silenced and moved to a dead end job outside of Accounting...
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...Assignment: Financial Analysis Company Overview HealthSouth Corporation is one largest rehabilitation healthcare providers. Healthsouth was founded in 1983 and the companies headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. The company has hospitals in 27 states throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico. They employ 22,000 team members. Healthsouth primarily operates inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and long-term acute care hospitals. Their hospitals provide treatment on both an inpatient and outpatient basis. The inpatient rehabilitation hospitals offer services to patients who require institutional rehabilitation care, and patient care is provided by nursing and therapy staff as directed by a physician order. HealthSouth’s hospitals provide a higher level of rehabilitative care to patients who are recovering from conditions such as stroke and other neurological disorders, orthopedic, cardiac and pulmonary conditions, brain and spinal cord injury, and amputations. Healthsouth strives to return patients to full strength in less time. The company operates 97 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, including 68 owned hospitals and 29 jointly owned hospitals; 6 freestanding long-term acute care hospitals; 32 outpatient rehabilitation satellite clinics; 25 licensed hospital-based home health agencies; and managed 4 inpatient rehabilitation units through management contracts. HealthSouth was involved in a corporate accounting scandal in which its Chief Executive...
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...Teaching Notes HealthSouth Corporation: Fraud, Greed and Corporate Governance Case Summary During the 1990s, Richard M. Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth Corporation, engineered many acquisitions of rehabilitation clinics, outpatient surgical care operators, nursing homes and other health care companies. Mr. Scrushy had been a respiratory therapist who spotted a niche in the health care market and utilized his entrepreneurial talents, marketing skills, and super salesmanship to set up and run what became the third largest publicly held company in Alabama. Eventually, HealthSouth became the largest provider of ambulatory surgery and rehabilitative health care services in the United States with 1,700 facilities and 51,000 employees. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the company and Mr. Scrushy of inflating earnings to the tune of $1.4 billion since 1999. In November 2003, a federal grand jury indicted Mr. Scrushy on 85 counts including conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering and charges related to overstating HealthSouth’s earnings by nearly $3.0 billion. According to federal investigators, the company overstated earnings to meet analysts’ earning estimates, while hiding the accounting fraud from the auditors. However, questions were raised whether the auditors failed to find or simply overlooked the fraud at HealthSouth. Central to the investigation was the issue of what role Mr. Scrushy played in “cooking the books.” However, as the case...
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