Richard Marin Scrushy (born August 1952) is an American businessman and convicted felon. He is the founder of HealthSouth Corporation, a global healthcare company based in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2004, following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Scrushy was criminally charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Scrushy was charged with 36 of the original 85 counts but was acquitted of all charges on June 28, 2005, after a jury trial in Birmingham. Four months after his acquittal in Birmingham, on October 28, 2005, Scrushy was indicted by a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, along with former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The indictment included 30 counts of money laundering, extortion, obstruction of justice, racketeering, and bribery. Although the new charges were filed a month before the previous trial ended, Scrushy's attorneys accused prosecutors of filing charges as retaliation for Scrushy's acquittal. Scrushy pleaded not guilty to all charges, but was convicted along with Siegelman in June 2006. On May 7, 2009, Scrushy was transferred from the Texas jail where he had been incarcerated and placed in the custody of the Shelby County Jail in Columbiana, Alabama. Scrushy was returned to Alabama in order to testify in a new civil trial in the Jefferson County Circuit Court brought against him by shareholders of HealthSouth who sought damages related to Scrushy's trial and conviction. On June 18, 2009, Judge Allwin E. Horn ruled that Scrushy was responsible for HealthSouth's fraud, and ordered him to pay $2.87 billion. On July 25, 2012, Scrushy was released from federal custody. Early life and background Richard M. Scrushy was born in August 1952 in Selma, Alabama. The son of a middle-class family, his father, Gerald Scrushy, worked as a cash register repairman and his mother, Grace Scrushy, worked as a nurse and respiratory therapist. At an early age, Scrushy taught himself to play the piano and guitar and was earning money doing odd jobs by the time he was twelve years old. Scrushy, who then went by his middle name Marin, attended school until he was 17. He dropped out prior to graduating from Parrish High School and married. Scrushy soon found himself living in a Selma trailer park and working manual labor jobs to support his family. After a run-in with a boss, Scrushy quit his job hauling cement and decided to return to school. He earned his GED