Case Study: Healthsouth Corporation Scandal

An implicit theme of this case that I want students to recognize is the contrast between the persistent and vigorous efforts of David Sokol to “get to the bottom” of the suspicious items he uncovered in JWP’s accounting records versus what Judge William Conner referred to as the “spinelessness” of JWP’s auditors. The JWP audits were similar to most problem audits in that the auditors encountered numerous red flags and questionable entries in the client’s accounting records but, for whatever reason, apparently failed to thoroughly investigate those items. On the other hand, Sokol refused to be deterred in his investigation of the troubling accounting issues that he discovered. The relationships that existed between members of JWP’s accounting staff and the Ernst & Young audit team apparently influenced the outcome of the JWP audits. Of course, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

In 1984, Richard Scrushy founded HealthSouth in Birmingham, Alabama. Scrushy was the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) when the company went public in 1986. HealthSouth grew quickly over the next several years. Shortly after HealthSouth went public, it is alleged that Scrushy instructed senior staff to materially inflate the company’s earning to match expectations. In 2002, the first sign of troubles occurred when Scrushy sold $75 million of HealthSouth stock days before HealthSouth announced a large loss. After this the SEC began to investigate if any insider trading laws had been violated. In 2003,

HealthSouth Corporation was incorporated in January 1984 in Birmingham, Alabma by the founder Richard M. Scrushy. HealthSouth Corporation is the leading provider of medical rehabilitation health care and outpatient surgery services in the United States. Richard M. Scrushy was the former CEO& Founder of HealthSouth Corporation, and there were 5 CFO which were Aaron Beam, Weston, Smith, Bill Owens, Michael Martin and Tadd Mcvay.

HealthSouth is one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers specializing in rehabilitation. HealthSouth was founded by Richard M. Scrushy in 1984 and went public in 1986. Scrushy served as its Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 2002. The company was incorporated in January 1984 as Amcare Inc. before its name was changed to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Corporation in May 1985. In January of 2003, Mr. Scrushy reassumed the position of CEO.

The story of HealthSouth begins with two of the most well know founders. Richard Scrushy was a bold, charismatic man of middle-class beginnings. He would rise from a mason to one of the highest earning CEO’s in the country due mainly to his ability to drive, charm, and manipulate those around him. Driven by the desire to attain wealth and status Scrushy was hired in at LifeMark where he rose through the ranks as a result of his unbridled competitive nature and workaholic tendencies.

A forensic audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that HealthSouth Corporation 's cumulative earnings were overstated by anywhere from $3.8 billion to $4.6 billion, according to a January 2004 report issued by the scandal-ridden health-care concern. HealthSouth acknowledged that the forensic audit discovered at least another $1.3 billion dollars in suspect financial reporting in addition to the previously estimated $2.5 billion. The scandal 's postmortem report

Review- This article is about the allegations made by FTC (federal trade commission) on southwest health in violation of antitrust laws, then its impact on local health system. Further FTC proposed a consent order to rectify these violation in the form of settlement process.

A major impetus behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was deliberate financial statement fraud. When committed on a large scale, billions of dollars can be lost and investor confidence in financial market will be reduced. Evidence suggests that the incidence of fraud has declined relative to the pre-SOX era. This can only be interpreted as suggesting that SOX

In October 2001, Enron Corporation which was one of the world major energy, commodities and service companies with claimed revenues of nearly 111 billion dollars during 2000 collapsed under the weight of massive fraud in that it has become largest bankruptcy recognition in the US economy. Enron’s earning report was extremely skewed that losses were not represented in their entirety, prompting more and more wishing to participate in what seemed like a profitable company. After collapse of Enron, Auditor independence has become a social issue that weather auditor has to be independent or not. In addition, while auditing must consider matters objectively with dispassion, there were still doubts whether it implemented well. Further, there has been much speculation about the need for the mandatory rotation of auditors or audit firm rotation to warn false accounting between audit firm and client. By examining Enron case, this essay will discuss about advantages and drawbacks of the mandatory rotation of

The auditing firm has been in engagement with the company throughout the period when the fraud was being committed. One of the common and clear indicators of possible fraud was the company’s cash flow statement. The company experienced positive growth in its profits from the year 1996 through to the year 1998. However, a close analysis of the cash flow statement shows that the company had experienced negative figures of cash flow from both operating and investing activities and positive cash flow from financing activities which would not sufficiently offset the negative cash flows from operating and investing. It is therefore evident

Assigned auditors were more than aware of the accounting misrepresentation of financial statements, overstating net income. Still instead of walking away from the client and resign, Andersen in pursuing short-term goals stayed with the company and moreover played by the Giant’s rules. More and more accounting firms at that time started to provide consulting services along with auditing to the same companies which always indicates a conflict of interests. Auditors are the guardians and rules players where consultants are giving advices and showing how to avoid some accounting oversights. Andersen also in order to make good profits stepped on the side of combining two contradicting to each other services. Waste Management had lots of former Arthur Andersen employees which also led to close ties between two companies. That situation undoubtedly led to inability to turn down fraudulent accounting practices Waste Management was exercising at that time for a long period of time.

On March 19 of the year 2003, Securities and Exchange Commission brought the trading of HealthSouth to an end on the New York stock exchange, charging the company for inflating its earnings by more than 10 percent and overstated its profits by more than $2.5 billion between 1999 and 2002. HealthSouth’s trading reached to $30.81 in the year 1998, but ever since the trading of the company has been put to an end it reached to $3.91 per share. One week later, Owens pleaded guilty to changing and editing the company’s financial statements.

Lindberg and Beck (2002) claim that auditor independence is hailed as the “cornerstone” in the accounting profession as it is the core reason as to why the public trusts their professional opinion. However, since 2000, many accounting fraud scandals have negatively impacted public opinion on the legitimacy of the audit profession and, if in fact, its independence is uninfluenced by other parties. One of the scandals being the sudden collapse of Enron, given that a few months prior its bankruptcy its auditors Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest audit and accounting firms, claimed that Enron was financially healthy, but in fact they were paid off

WorldCom acquired Arthur Andersen as the independent external auditing for the company. As WorldCom grew after the merger with MCI, Andersen began to invoice less than they should have. The charges were defended as an opportunity to prolong business with WorldCom. (Kaplan and Kiron, 2007). This is an immediate red flag for a company. Where were the ethical practices of the independent auditor? If the auditor has no ethics, how can one possibly be assured that the company is performing its intended function appropriately? The board of directors should have immediately been informed of Andersen’s practices and made a decision to confront Andersen’s practices and possibly obtain new independent auditors.

The lack of independence for external auditors will lead to the neglect of auditing risks (William R.K., 2003), which are the main reasons for the failure of certified accountants and professional accounting organizations. The consequence of the external auditors deprived of independence would be very serious. And there are many cases, which aroused by the failure of external auditors and most are related to the lack of independence. One famous example is the bankruptcy of Enron and the role played by its external auditor, Arthur Andersen (Todd, S., 2003). Arthur Andersen was once one of the biggest accounting companies in the world, and was canceled for the involvement in the Enron bankruptcy scandal.