Letter: Scrushy Teaching Business In Prison

JAY REEVES

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Imprisoned for bribery and ordered to pay almost $2.9 billion for leading one of the largest business frauds in U.S. history, HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy says he's teaching other federal inmates about something he knows: Business.

Scrushy recently wrote a letter to the Fox Business Network saying he's teaching business, real estate and investing to other inmates at the minimum-security federal prison where he is being held in Beaumont, Texas.

A federal prison spokeswoman, Linda Thomas, said Friday the agency can't confirm whether Scrushy really is teaching business. But, she says, inmate teachers are closely supervised.

Scrushy is serving nearly seven years for his role in a bribery scheme with former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who also was convicted. Separately, a judge ordered him to pay $2.87 billion in a civil lawsuit over the huge scandal that nearly sank the Birmingham-based HealthSouth.

Scrushy claims he was wrongly convicted in the bribery case, and he blamed the accounting fraud on underlings at HealthSouth. He was acquitted on criminal charges in the HealthSouth scheme in 2005.