By Laurence Viele Davidson
Bloomberg News
Friday, June 29, 2007

HealthSouth founder Richard M. Scrushy was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison for bribing former Alabama governor Don Siegelman in a scheme to steer business to the company.

U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller in Montgomery, Ala., handed down the sentence yesterday, a year after a jury convicted Scrushy, 54, and Siegelman, 61. Fuller sentenced Siegelman to seven years and four months in prison.

The judge denied their requests for bail while they appeal their sentences. At the end of yesterday's hearing, both men were taken into custody.

"I'm a man who loves God, who loves his country, who loves his family," Scrushy told the judge before he was sentenced. "When you go through fire, you turn to God."

Prosecutors sought a 25-year term for Scrushy and a 30-year term for Siegelman. Scrushy was convicted of making a $500,000 payment to a state lottery campaign fund in exchange for a seat on an Alabama hospital regulatory board. The two men claimed it was a legitimate political donation.

Fuller also ordered Scrushy to pay a fine of $150,000 and $1,952.66 a month for the cost of his incarceration. Scrushy must also pay $267,000 in restitution. The judge ordered Siegelman to pay a $50,000 fine and restitution of $181,000.

Siegelman was convicted in the Scrushy bribery scheme and for obstruction of justice. Acting U.S. Attorney Louis V. Franklin urged Fuller to abandon sentencing guidelines and give Scrushy a harsher sentence.

In 2005, Scrushy was acquitted in a $2.7 billion accounting-fraud trial in federal court in Birmingham. Five former HealthSouth chief financial officers had testified that Scrushy directed the alleged scheme at the company, the largest U.S. owner of rehabilitation hospitals.