HealthSouth wins $133 million from UBS

Birmingham-based HealthSouth has taken another step toward recovering what it had lost under Richard Scrushy and his former administration, winning a $133 million settlement from investment bank UBS. UBS has agreed to pay $100 million in cash and forgive $33 million in debts that HealthSouth owed to the investment bank. The agreement settles its part in a complex shareholder suit originally filed against HealthSouth itself.

HealthSouth's suit contended that UBS knew that Scrushy and others were faking as much as $2.6 billion in profits from 1996 to 2002. The suit also claimed that UBS advisers enthusiastically encouraged investors to buy HealthSouth stock even though they knew it was being propped up by the fake numbers. The money from UBS amounts to about 20 percent of HealthSouth's 2007 profits.

To learn more about the victory:
-read this Birmingham News piece