2 Former HealthSouth Execs Plead Guilty

Two more former HealthSouth Corp. executives pleaded guilty, admitting that they falsified company records to aid an alleged $2.5-billion accounting fraud.

Richard Botts, ex-senior vice president in the company’s tax department, acknowledged he inflated assets on federal and state tax returns for HealthSouth, the largest U.S. operator of rehabilitation hospitals. Jason Brown, a former vice president of finance, admitted to hiding the sale in 2001 of $27 million in stock of another public company.

Thirteen former company executives have pleaded guilty; all are helping federal prosecutors in a grand jury investigation of former Chief Executive Richard Scrushy. Another executive, Will Hicks, is to enter a plea today.