Jury to Get Scrushy Case This Week
For all the dozens of witnesses who testified for and against Richard Scrushy during his fraud trial, the fate of the fired HealthSouth Corp. chief executive may hang on whether jurors believe just a handful.
Prosecutors built their case around five former HealthSouth finance chiefs who pleaded guilty to participating in a $2.7-billion fraud and who all -- with varying degrees of detail -- told jurors that Scrushy was in deep too. One of them, Bill Owens, even wore a wire for the FBI.
The defense paints all the former CFOs as self-serving, greedy liars, particularly Owens. Every one of them turned on an old boss hoping to avoid stiff penalties for a crime of their own making, defense lawyers argue.
A jury will begin deciding which version wins this week. Lawyers are set to give closing arguments Wednesday, and deliberations will begin Thursday.
After 15 weeks of a trial in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., that was interrupted by frequent delays, jurors will get to offer their take on Scrushy, the first CEO tried under the Sarbanes-Oxley law, passed in 2002 in response to a wave of corporate corruption.
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The Week Ahead
Tuesday
* The Labor Department releases April’s producer price index.
* The Commerce Department reports on U.S. housing starts for April.
* The Federal Reserve releases industrial production data for April.
* Quarterly earnings are expected from Hewlett-Packard Co., Home Depot Inc. and Nordstrom Inc.
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Wednesday
* The Labor Department releases April’s consumer price index.
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Thursday
* The Conference Board releases the index of leading economic indicators for April.
* Quarterly earnings are expected from Gap Inc.
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