Richard Scrushy

Richard Marin Scrushy (born 1952) is an American healthcare entrepreneur who founded HealthSouth Corporation, based in Birmingham, Alabama. Raised in Selma, he trained as a respiratory therapist, taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and rose to chief operating officer at Lifemark Corporation in Houston. After leaving Lifemark in 1983 he founded Amcare, then started HealthSouth in 1984 with a venture capital investment from Citicorp. HealthSouth went public in 1986 and grew into the largest rehabilitative services company in the United States. His career is also defined by legal conflict: he was charged over accounting fraud at HealthSouth and acquitted in 2005, was convicted in 2006 on separate bribery and related counts alongside a former governor, and was later held civilly responsible for the company's fraud.