Financial Risk Manager

At 66, Aaron Beam is getting on with his life. Six years ago Beam made headlines by admitting that he cooked the books at HealthSouth Corp., the Birmingham, Alabama-based provider of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services that he co-founded. The four men who succeeded Beam as finance chief also confessed to the $2.7 billion accounting fraud, which took place between 1996 and 2002. All five CFOs pleaded guilty to criminal charges and testified that HealthSouth co-founder and CEO Richard Scrushy was behind the fraud. But the defense hammered away at their credibility during Scrushy's 2005 trial, and Scrushy was acquitted of all charges. (He was, however, convicted of bribery in 2006, and is currently serving an 82-month sentence in a Texas federal prison.)

Released after three months in a minimum-security pen, Beam retreated to his small hometown of Loxley, Alabama. Having sold his $3 million dream home to pay restitution and legal fees, Beam now lives modestly and mows lawns for a living. But he is also developing another career: educational speaker. By telling his story to business students, Beam thinks he can teach a highly personal lesson in ethics that will stick.


Most CFOs can probably tell stories about the CEOs they've worked with, but in your case it sounds like an especially difficult relationship.

Unless you were there and experienced it, it's hard to understand. You couldn't tell [Scrushy] no on anything. I have seen him so mad over minor things that I actually feared for my physical safety. I often joke with students that if Richard Scrushy and Hannibal Lecter were in a fight, I would bet on Richard Scrushy

Edward Teach - CFO Magazine