HealthSouth Civil Lawsuit Seeks $2.6B From Scrushy

The plaintiffs' lawyers are relying on testimony of a former controller and five finance chiefs who will say Scrushy was in on the scheme, McNamee said. All are "self-confessed liars," he said, and all the CFOs pleaded guilty in the scam.

The finance chiefs — including Beam and Owens — told jurors in Scrushy's criminal trial that he directed them to make it look like HealthSouth was meeting earnings forecasts when it wasn't. Jurors sided with defense claims that Scrushy was duped by underlings.

Haley said even if Scrushy wasn't part of the scheme, he failed in his duty as chief executive to know what was going on.

Haley also accused Scrushy of looting HealthSouth for hundreds of flights aboard its airplanes and helicopters and charging the company for a country band fronted by Scrushy called Dallas County Line. Haley showed the judge a video of the band with Scrushy as lead singer, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

When Scrushy decided he wanted to be a record producer, HealthSouth footed the bills for an all-female singing group called 3rd Faze and even paid the $4,600 bill for breast implants for a singer, Haley said.