shipperx | Yay! The Jackasses Were Convicted

Yay. Scrushy ~~bought~~ slimed his way out of charges related to the very, very, very illegal fraud he participated in with HealthSouth, but they at least got him on the whole Certificate of Need bullshit (which anyone who works in healthcare adminitstration or architecture concerning healthcare had to know that something was seriously not right when he got that huge ass hospital approved to be built without a Certificate of Need.) Anyway:

MONTGOMERY - A federal jury convicted former Gov. Don Siegelman and HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy Thursday on corruption charges alleging that Scrushy bought a seat on a state board with $500,000 in contributions to Siegelman's lottery campaign.

The decision was the culmination of a five-year investigation that delved into the nooks and crannies of Siegelman's administration [...] The jury convicted Siegelman on seven of the 32 charges against him - bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and four counts of honest services mail fraud. Scrushy was convicted on all six charges against him - bribery, conspiracy and four counts of honest services mail fraud.

[...] Six of the seven guilty verdicts against Siegelman related to Scrushy and the state Certificate of Need Review Board. Prosecutors contended Scrushy arranged two $250,000 donations to Siegelman's 1999 lottery campaign to buy a slot on that board. [...] The guilty verdict was a reversal of fortune for Scrushy, coming one year and one day after a Birmingham jury acquitted him on criminal charges related to the $2.7 billion HealthSouth fraud case [...] If the convictions stand, the men could face up to 10 years in prison for bribery and up to five years in prison for each conviction on conspiracy and honest services mail fraud. Siegelman also could face up to 10 years in prison for obstruction of justice.

Couldn't happen to more deserving jackasses. They'll never be sent to jail though. Still, I always fume that Scrushy and his ilk (i.e. Enron and the type) really need to go to (to quote Office Space) "pound-me-in-the-ass-prison."