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Article: HealthSouth rigged profits by $1.4 billion, SEC charges.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- March 19, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Andrew Countryman
It seems innocuous enough: getting together for a little family meeting to discuss how to fill a hole with some dirt.
But, the government alleged Wednesday, those terms masked a breathtaking corporate fraud: The "family" was members of HealthSouth Corp.'s accounting staff. The "hole" was the gap between HealthSouth's actual earnings in a particular quarter and Wall Street's estimates. And the "dirt" was earnings the staff would invent to eliminate the gap.
That's the basis of civil fraud charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against HealthSouth, the nation's largest provider of outpatient surgery and ...