Ex-HealthSouth Exec Gets Year, Plus Day, in Jail

Another former HealthSouth Corp. finance executive was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his part in the company's estimated $4-billion accounting fraud.

Jason Brown, 36, a former vice president of finance for the health-care company based here, will report to prison on Feb. 1. He will serve two years of supervised release following his prison term. By tacking an extra day onto the sentence, Brown can request a short reduction in time served for good behavior.

Brown was one of 15 former HealthSouth executives who pleaded guilty to a variety of fraud charges after it was discovered that the company had been reporting inflated earnings for years. Forensic accountants working for HealthSouth's new management put the extent of the fraud at nearly $4 billion.

A jury found former HealthSouth chief executive Richard Scrushy not guilty of all charges in June, even though five former finance chiefs testified he was aware of the accounting scheme. Scrushy will face civil charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007.

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