And just when you thought the Healthsouth mess couldnt get any more bizarre, the new management have decided that the fraud was worse than they were letting on, $4Bn rather than $2.5Bn.  One "victim" is ex-child actor, star of the Wonder Years, Jason Hervey who was hired as a PR slack by Scrushy, in a more than bizarre move.  He was given a 3 year deal in 2002 at a mere $300,000 a year and then fired last March. He was offered either a lump sum buy-out or could keep collecting every two weeks which he did.  Well funnily enough last November the checks stopped coming and now he’s gone to court to get them to resume. 

For you soccer fans this reminds me of the obscure tale of Winston Bogarde, a one time Dutch international who’s been on the payroll at Chelsea FC in London at a mere $2.5 million a year and has not featured in any first team or even reserve team game in 3 years.  No one at the club remembers why they signed him, and the coach and general manager at the time both claim the other one signed him without their knowledge, but so long as he clocks into training once a week, there’d nothing they can do other than hand over the cash…..

Perhaps the only way either Chelsea or Healthsouth can get out of their obligations is to declare Chapter 11.  Chelsea was bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovitch last summer and has been spending money like a drunken sailor on new players ever since, so their chances of fooling a judge are limited.  Healthsouth? Well I’m not so sure…….